The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein & Giveaway (US/Canada)

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein is a novel that tells of the 1945 firebombing on Tokyo and takes us on a journey into the lives of those who experienced both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of this devastating act of war.  While the tale she tells is fictional, the basis for it is not and this story will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

When we first meet Yoshi Kobayashi she is a little girl who still believes that life has only the best to offer.  At a dinner party her parents are at she meets Billy although at her young age she has no idea what an impact he will later have on her life.  When the bombings occur Yoshi’s innocence is forever lost.  Billy wants only to take pictures.  With his first camera he discovered a love of photography that would remain with him throughout his life.  However in the time during WWII young men didn’t have the chance to follow their dreams; they had to go to war instead.  Around them are their parents dealing with marriage, infidelities, and the effects of war.  We also meet Cam and Lacy, a young couple in love but both are deeply affected by the war when Cam leaves to fight in it as a bomber pilot.

The intriguing part of this novel is how all these people’s lives intersect in some way even though it seems unlikely that they should.  I wouldn’t say I so much connected with the characters in this book but I felt for them and in that there was a connection.  The tragedies of war and the lives lost is devastating and the author truly brings this horror to life for the reader.  While I have read of the bombing of Tokyo I’ve never experienced the harsh realities of it quite as much as I did with this novel.  The author takes you through the streets and you can almost smell the charred remains of buildings and see the injured and dying people.

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment is a powerful novel.  While it is a story of war and its effects on people it is also a story of hope and resilience.  This novel was meticulously researched and it shows.  I also really liked the photos she included at the beginning of each chapter that were of real people during the war.  I read Jennifer Cody Epstein’s first novel The Painter of Shanghai years ago and she impressed me then and did once again with The Gods of Heavenly Punishment.  I will once again be anxiously awaiting her next book!

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein is touring with TLC Book Tours so be sure to check out the other tour stops.  You can find Jennifer on her website as well as liking her Facebook page.  You can pick up your own copy of The Gods of Heavenly Punishment at Amazon, Amazon Canada, B&N, and IndieBound.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein to share with my readers.  To enter…

• For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries follow my blog.  If you already do let me know and I’ll pass the extra entry on to you as well.
• Tweet, Share on Facebook, or Blog for 3 entries.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on May 29/13.  Good luck!

The Bequest of Big Daddy by Jo-Ann Costa & Giveaway (US/Canada)

The Bequest of Big Daddy is the debut novel of Jo-Ann Costa and she is a natural born storyteller with characters that are larger than life and not soon forgotten.  The Southern family of the Janson clan has  Big Daddy, Ratio Janson, at its helm ruling his family with an iron fist.  Now that sounds bad and while Big Daddy has a lot of bad habits he’s actually good to those who are family although family also knows to get clear out of his way when the warning signs are there to do so.  Big Daddy has a bad temper and it can snap at a moments notice so when Jo-Dee goes with her daddy to visit the aged Big Daddy it is no surprise when he flies off the handle and they have to leave.  He passes a few days later and between the funeral and Jo-Dee’s natural curiosity she finds herself under the spell of this Big man who was her great grandfather and this curiosity about him lasts well into her adulthood.

The family secrets harbored within this Southern family began generations before Jo-Dee came to be.  They started with Ratio and his birth and a mysterious gravestone in the family cemetery.  Ratio’s father goes off to war so he’s left to be raised by his mother Mina and she isn’t much of a mother being much too self-centered for mothering.  Ratio is left on his own for the most part and really doesn’t have a hard time finding trouble from a young age which finds him in a situation that ultimately changes him.  While working in a sawmill Ration gets a little too close to the owner’s daughter and is thrown in a cell to die but Ratio is much too smart for that and finds a way to escape.  From this point on he meets his first wife and has quite a few kids but Ratio also has a wandering eye and it isn’t long before that eye and his bad temper lead him to do something he can’t fix easily.  He ends up being sentenced to hard labor but even that doesn’t really stop him and eventually he is free.  Of course Ratio doesn’t do anything the normal way so he takes advantage of the black markets going strong after the Civil War and makes his fortune all the while keeping a close eye on his ever growing family.

While not an honest man and certainly not the nicest one around when in a temper Ratio was a character that grabbed me from the very beginning.  Despite seeming to be such a hard man he also had a softer side that fiercely protected those he loved.  He was not a man to be wronged and if he was he exacted his revenge no matter how long it may have taken.  Ratio, having been raised by a woman who didn’t show him affection had a hard time showing it himself and yet he loved his family.  He arranged a family reunion on July 4 of 1908 which was the anniversary of meeting his first wife Eugenie and he held fast to all those in the family attending every year.  While I was horrified and shocked by some of the things that Ratio did I felt that his beginnings had a lot to do with where he went in life.  What direction would his life had taken if he had love instead of neglect?

As the novel slides into 1981 we find Jo-Dee all grown up and still just as curious as she ever was to know more about this man everyone called Big Daddy.  After the annual family reunion she sets out to find out what she can about this mysterious grave and man who has so occupied her thoughts.  Many things come to light on her trip and secrets are unburied but what will she do with these secrets?  Ultimately she knows she can’t destroy her family with them but for Jo-Dee this journey brought her closer to the man who had been Big Daddy.

This was a great read for me and one I would recommend to those of you who like Southern tales as well as family dramas.  Big Daddy was such a dominating force but there were many characters in this novel from big to small who are also well fleshed out and intriguing.  The author Jo-Ann Costa writes in such a way that she fully draws you into the drama of her story and holds you there.  I can’t wait for more from this fabulous debut author!

The Bequest of Big Daddy by Jo-Ann Costa is touring with TLC Book Tours so be sure to pop by the other tour stops to see what others think of the book.  You can find Jo-Ann on her website as well as Facebook and Twitter.  Your own copy of The Bequest of Big Daddy can be purchased on Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of The Bequest of Big Daddy by Jo-Ann Costa to share with my readers.  To enter…

• For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries follow my blog.  If you already do let me know so I can pass that extra entry on to you as well.
• Tweet, like on Facebook, or blog this giveaway for 3 entries.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, April 20/13.  Good luck!

Source:  Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the Publisher.  No compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

The Love Shack by Christie Ridgway & Giveaway (US/Canada)

I only have a certain type of romance novel that I like to read and I figured by the description of The Love Shack by Christie Ridgway that I would like it and I was right!  This was a light, easy read with of course a good smattering of hanky panky within the pages and I really enjoyed it.  I like fun romances and The Love Shack fit that description but it had a seriousness to it as well that I think added a depth to it.  This is the final installment in the Beach House trilogy and while I imagine having previously read the other two would have added to my enjoyment of this this one it stands on its own quite well and I’m anxious now to read the other two.

Skye is the property manager at Crescent Cove and is getting ready for another busy summer.  Nobody is more shocked than she is when Gage shows up and surprises her with his arrival since he had reserved Beach House No. 9 under a fictitious name for just that reason. Skye and Gage are not strangers.  They spent childhood summers at Crescent Cove and while Gage was in Afghanistan as  a reporter they had been pen pals exchanging many letters.  It is these letters that kept Gage sane during a really bad experience in Afghanistan so he’s anxious to see his pen pal but also he hopes the peace of Crescent Cove will help him get back his zest for life.

Skye seems off somehow to Gage and he notices how nervous and jumpy she seems.  He can’t help but be attracted to her though.  She’s beautiful and he can’t help but think how much more beautiful she’d be if she wouldn’t always be trying to hide herself behind frumpy clothes.  His attraction runs more than just physical though.  This woman helped him through one of the most trying experiences of his life and it’s not something he can forget.  Yet Skye doesn’t seem interested in him in that way.  As a matter of a fact she gets awfully jumpy at any contact at all.  What is going on with her he wonders and of course he can’t resist making it his mission to find out.  When he does discover Skye’s secret he is shocked and angry but it brings them closer and closer until finally he reveals his secret to her as well.  As Skye finds herself falling deeper and deeper for Gage she can’t stop herself from thinking that in a few weeks he’ll be leaving again and she’ll be left mending a broken heart.

I liked the characters in this story.  There were others besides Skye and Gage but they were my favorite and who I’m focusing on here but that isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the other character lines as well.  I just felt more connected to Skye and Gage’s story.  They both had been hurt in different ways but in each other they found a way to heal and move forward.  As I said earlier this is a fun read but there is a very real side to it as well that involves people going to war torn countries and what they deal with there and while it’s not touched on deeply it’s still there.  As I said there is quite a lot of hanky panky so be sure that’s your kind of thing before you decide to read the book.  The Love Shack was a great escape for me with a sizzling hot romance and I really enjoyed it.

The Love Shack by Christie Ridgway is touring with TLC Book Tours so be sure to check out the other tour stops for more on The Love Shack as well as the other two novels in the series Bungalow Nights and Beach House No. 9.  You can find Christie on her website as well as Facebook and Twitter.  Your own copy of The Love Shack can be purchased at Amazon or Amazon Canada.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

You have the chance to win one of the three books in this series.  Should you win the giveaway you can have your choice of The Love Shack, Bungalow Nights, or Beach House No. 9 by Christie Ridgway (you can click on each title for a description).  To enter…

• For 1 entry leave me a comment telling me which of these books you’d like to win.
• For 2 entries follow my blog.  If you already do let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
• Tweet, Like on Facebook, or Blog this giveaway for 3 entries.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, April 6/13.  Good luck!

Source: Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the Publisher via NetGalley.  No compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

 

Wanderers by Edward Belfar & Giveaway (US/Canada)

Wanderers by Edward Belfar is a collection of short stories that have Kenya, the US, and Rome as a setting. I don’t read a lot of short stories but once in a while I do like them especially when I may not feel like delving into a full length novel. Often I feel as though the meaning that is being portrayed in short stories escapes me but that was not so with The Wanderers. This novel is about people who are wandering through their own lives. It is sometimes sad and sometimes funny. The meaning that comes through clearly is that the choices we make in our lives lead us in either good or bad directions and ultimately that is what we have to work with.

These stories are not happy ones; really I’d say the mood of the book is somber at best. People are sad, depressed, and not happy with where they’ve ended up in their lives. I think this is so true to our lives and while a lot of the people ended up in situation much more dire than I can imagine I could still relate to not being where I’d like to be in my life. As with most short story collections I had a few favorites and I’ll touch on those briefly.

The first was a story called Mistaken Identity. A young couple who is planning to marry has come to her home in Nairobi to meet her family. He is American and of course not familiar with many of the customs of her people. In a ceremony that is very important to them he manages to make a critical mistake that reverberated throughout his marriage.

Two other favorites were actually related stories. In Roman Honeymoon a young couple is on their honeymoon in Rome. She is angry because she wanted to go to the Bahamas and doesn’t like Rome and he is spending a lot of time wondering whether he wants to be married at all. Fast forward about ten years in Visitations and things seem to have gone downhill even further. An accident causes an even bigger rift to form and tensions grow even larger.

The final story that struck a chord with me was Leaving the Chesapeake. It was about a man who was very much down on his luck. He is divorced, no job to speak of, and is trying to pay child support. He seemed like such a lost soul beat down by life and the Chesapeake is most certainly not luxury living – it is worse than the worst dump. He doesn’t feel as though he’s living life anymore, he is just existing in it. He wonders if anything will ever change…

This is a good collection of short stories. I think if you’re an individual who really enjoys the short story format you’d likely get even more out of reading them than I did. Despite the rather sad tone to the book I still enjoyed it.

Wanderers by Edward Belfar is on tour with TLC Book Tours so be sure to check out the other tour stops. You can find Edward on his website or on Goodreads. You can purchase your own copy of Wanderers on Amazon or Amazon Canada.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of Wanderers by Edward Belfar to share with my readers.  To enter…

• For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries follow my blog.  If you already do let me know and I’ll pass the entry on to you as well.
• For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, January 26/13,  Good luck!

Source: Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the Publisher. No compensation was received and all opinions are my own.