LOVE BATS LAST BLOG TOUR: INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR PAMELA AARES



Here on Friday
Feb. 28th






About the Author:
Pamela is an author of contemporary and historical romance novels. Her first book, Jane Austen and the Archangel (Angels Come to Earth, #1) was released in 2012. Midnight Becomes You, (Angels Come to Earth, #2) will release in 2014, along with three more books in the Heart of the Game series, all releasing in 2014.
Before becoming a romance author, Pamela Aares produced and wrote award-winning films and radio shows including Your Water, Your Life featuring actress Susan Sarandon and the NPR series New Voices. After producing The Powers of the Universe and The Earth’s Imagination, she knew without a doubt that romance lives at the heart of the universe and powers the greatest stories of all.
Pamela holds a Master’s Degree from Harvard and lives in the wine country of California with her husband and two curious cats. Her love of nature led to adventures scuba diving the coral reefs of Fiji, exploring the cliffs of Greece, sea kayaking the Rosario Straits and white water rafting the wild and scenic rivers of the west—and romance!

AT THE RIVER'S EDGE

AT THE RIVER'S EDGE                            MARIAH STEWART
Posted:  Feb. 24, 2014

At the River's Edge by Mariah Stewart  After taking stock of her life, Sophie Enright has decided it’s time for a break. Between a law career that’s become criminally dull and a two-timing boyfriend she’s done with once and for all, Sophie desperately needs some time to think and some space to breathe. The perfect place to do both is easygoing St. Dennis, Maryland, where Sophie can visit with her brother while she figures out her options. Once in St. Dennis, she discovers a shuttered restaurant and makes a bold move that is also a leap of faith. Sophie buys the fixer-upper in order to finally pursue her dream career.

But Sophie’s labor of love becomes a bone of contention for her new neighbor Jason Bowers. The local landscaper has big plans for growing his business—until Sophie scoops up the property he’s got his eye on. And no amount of buyout offers or badgering from him will get her to budge. It’s hardly the start of a beautiful friendship. But when they’re paired up to work on a community project, they agree to put their differences aside, and sparks begin to fly. Then Sophie’s cheating ex suddenly shows up, looking for a second chance—and threatening to make Jason a third wheel just when his hotheaded feelings about Sophie were turning decidedly warmhearted. All Sophie wants is a new life and a true love. But what are the odds of having both?

MY REVIEW:
      Sophie was living in the big city, was a big city lawyer, and with a boyfriend who worked with her.  All was going great until she caught him having sex in the backseat of his BMW in the parking garage at work.  What made it worse it was with the office skank lawyer they worked with.
     She had no case pending and time on the books so she asked for a week’s vacation to go home to be with the family before the wedding.  Her boss knowing what was going on granted it.
     Sophie has a lot of soul searching to do.  When she gets home she is hit with the fact that her brother Jesse needs help in the office.  Especially, since her uncle Mike and Grandpa retired.  Yet, Sophie is not sure her heart is in law anymore.  She might want a career change, especially after seeing a sweet piece of property on the other side of the lake that had an old restaurant.  She starts day dreaming of the possibilities you know her choices. 
     Now there’s Jason, Brooke’s brother-in-law from her first husband, Eric.  He is as sexy as hell and makes Sophie have butterflies in her stomach, not be able to keep her eyes off his ass, and makes her feel feelings she hadn’t felt in a long while, even with Chris.  Jason owns the property next to the one she’s dreaming about in fact he’s been trying to buy the property she wants.  “Dun, dun, dun, dun…do you hear the doom march playing?”  Jason though is a good guy, a guy that knows the meaning of family for he learned the hard way.
     At 15, both his parents were in a car accident in which he was injured and his brother Eric took custody of him since he was 18.  They started a business together which was growing leaps and bounds and supporting them.  Then, Eric joined the military and married Brooke, she has Logan, when the worst occurred.  Eric was killed in the line of duty.  There was no question he would sell the business give half to Brooke for her and Logan.  Then, Brooke asked Jason to stay on and be an uncle to Logan and he did.
     To me this was more of a story of a woman who had been done wrong by her man.  After thinking about it, figures out that he more than likely had been stepping out on her when she wasn’t paying attention.  Jason is her first relationship after Chris and feels like he wouldn’t do her wrong since he’s friends with her brother and grandfather.
     See how these to come together makes some errors and then see what happens from there.  I just had a hard time getting into this book.  I was expecting a romance and kept waiting but it was really not happening for me.  Don’t get me wrong there was one and there was HEA it just didn’t move me like some of her other books and characters.  It was good but not up to the standards I expected.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Find us on www.1rad-readerreviews.com

TRANSPO TRICKS IN CHESS

TRANSPO TRICKS IN CHESS                   ANDY SOLTIS
Posted:  Feb. 24, 2014

Transpo Tricks in Chess  A transposition in chess is a little like a bait-and-switch marketing ploy. The customer thinks he’s getting a bargain on one piece of merchandise, but he ends up buying another at a much higher price. In the first book devoted to chess transpositions, New York Post columnist and acclaimed chess author Andy Soltis shows how this strategy works over the board. By transposing a series of well-known moves (i.e., making them in an unfamiliar order), a player leads his opponent into an unfavorable position that he would normally have shunned. Using entertaining examples from the games of the masters, Soltis covers a variety of transpositions in virtually every kind of opening: double e-pawn, Sicilian, the Reti, English, Indian, and others.


HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This is not just another chess book. This is a book that gives you different moves against some of doing the same defenses. For example the double e- pawn opening, or the Sicilian defense. These are just two but the author breaks down all of the standard moves and take an in depth look into the pros and cons of traditional and his new way. If you like to play chess then this is a book to at least take a look at if anything it will get you to think differently and that is what we need to do some times. To make the person we are playing against think what is he going to do next? He is not playing like he or she normally does. Advantage you. That is what I got out of this book. I got this book from net galley.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME: HUBBY'S REVIEW

ONCE IN A LIFETIME                              JILL SHALVIS
Posted:  Feb. 24, 2014

Once in a Lifetime (Lucky Harbor #9)  SOMETIMES WRONG IS OH-SO-RIGHT

After a wrenching loss, Ben McDaniel tried to escape his grief by working in dangerous, war-torn places like Africa and the Middle East. Now he's back in his hometown and face-to-face with Aubrey Wellington, the hot-as-hell woman who is trouble with a capital T. Family and friends insist she's not the one to ease his pain, but Aubrey sparks an intense desire that gives Ben hope for the future.

Determined to right the wrongs of her past, Aubrey is working hard to make amends. But by far, the toughest challenge to her plan is sexy, brooding Ben - even though he has absolutely no idea what she's done . . .

Can this unlikely couple defy the odds and win over the little town of Lucky Harbor?

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This story begins with Ben, who after 5 years of working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the DOD, he has come home. His two best friends are trying to get him to date since the reason he left is that his wife was killed. Jack seems to be the closet to Ben of the two friends and he spends a lot of time at the bakery. Where it happens that Ben spots Aubrey who he feels an attraction to. Aubrey is coming out of a very bad situation, you cannot call it a relationship. The so called man who was the city manager embezzled from the city yet made it out like it was her fault and was dating her and one of her friends at the same time. People in the town though are blaming her even after he wrote a book. Mainly because when she was younger she was always getting into trouble. This part of the story pissed me off, oh well moving on. She decides to reopen her aunts’ old book store but it does need to be fixed up a bit. Her grandfather hires Ben to do the remodel without telling Aubrey. Then before he can tell her that she runs into the ass at a bar and throws a drink at him he ducks and the drink hits Ben in the face. It should be noted that she has had a crush on Ben since high school even though she was two years behind him. She runs out of the bar and realizes that Ben is following her so she hides in a church not knowing that an AA meeting is taking place. She stays not wanting to be seen by Ben. They are working on making a list of the people you have wronged and asking for forgiveness. She makes a list and one of the people on the list is Ben. He finally catches up to her and finds the list and starts to ask her question after question about the names on the list. She finally gives him answer to get the list back and he tells her that her grandfather hired him to do the changes to the store. From there the first night he works there they end up kissing and for both of them it is like nothing either one has ever experienced before. It was caught on video and posted by the local face book person. Over the next few days he finds a way to be with her to take to some of the places where she talks to people about forgiveness. This is very difficult for her and takes a lot of courage. You don’t know how someone is going to react. For her she gets some negative but she some positive as well. And by the time her father shows up because of something that first jerk did she is able to stand up to him and tell him she did that because he left her and her mom and she paid for college without calling him for he was not the farther she excepted. She and Ben had some very hot and passionate moments but the thing that she told him he had to work through it. Finally some people who were in her corner told him the truth which I think he knew it just took him awhile to admit it. A good story. I got this book from net galley.



THE RENTED MULE

THE RENTED MULE                                 BOBBY COLE
Posted:  Feb. 24, 2014

The Rented Mule  Cooper Dixon should have it made, with a beautiful wife, Kelly, two great kids, and a thriving business, the Tower Agency. But for Cooper, things aren't turning out how he expected. He and Kelly are caught in a never-ending cycle of arguments?Cooper can't remember the last time they had sex. And Cooper's troubled business partner, Gates Ballenger, is scheming to sell the Tower Agency out from under him.

When a gang of criminals is hired by a mysterious client to kidnap Kelly and set up Cooper to take the fall, Cooper's life goes completely off the rails. The cops quickly zero in on Cooper as the prime suspect, and the combination of an attractive suburban mother, workaholic husband, and a million-dollar insurance policy makes the case primetime television fodder.

Soon, Cooper's face is plastered on every TV screen in the country. Cooper races against time to find his wife before the gang turns her over to their client, whose plan to take down Cooper is far more sinister than anyone could imagine.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
In this story the main character Cooper is lost, in his marriage and his business partnership. He really does not know what is happening around him. He is more focused on some piece of land that he wants to buy after his company is sold. But he does not want to sell the company, his partner is in a lot of trouble with gambling debts and he is the one who is pushing for the sell. Now his wife can only see the money that they should be receiving from the sell so she is out spending and planning a party for the oldest daughter that is the talk of the town. There is another person who wants cooper out of the way but you don’t find out who that person is until the end. He causes coppers and his wife’s life to go through a crises and during this time they both realize that they love each other but have to make it out of it to start a new. There are so many twists and turns that it was almost to the end before you find out who really was behind everything. A lot of suspense which for me did not want to put the book down especially the last 150 pages. This was a very, very good book. I am not wanting to say to much more because I feel like I will give more of the story away. I got this book from net galley.

THE 34-TON BAT

THE 34-TON BAT                                         STEVEN RUSHIN
Posted:  Feb. 24, 2014

The 34-Ton Bat by Steve Rushin  An unorthodox history of baseball told through the enthralling stories of the game's objects, equipment, and characters.

No sport embraces its wild history quite like baseball, especially in memorabilia and objects. Sure, there are baseball cards and team pennants. But there are also huge balls, giant bats, peanuts, cracker jacks, eyeblack, and more, each with a backstory you have to read to believe. In THE 34-TON BAT, Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin tells the real, unvarnished story of baseball through the lens of all the things that make it the game that it is.

Rushin weaves these rich stories--from ballpark pipe organs played by malevolent organists to backed up toilets at Ebbets Field--together in their order of importance (from most to least) for an entertaining and compulsive read, glowing with a deep passion for America's Pastime. The perfect holiday gift for casual fans and serious collectors alike, THE 34-TON BAT is a true heavy hitter.

HUBBY'S REVIEW;
This is a baseball book about all of the items that go along with the game. Like gloves, men before the 1900s did not use gloves they used their bare hands. This did not change until the early 1900s and even then there still were a few men who still thought it was being a weakling for using them. The same goes for the gear catcher’s use first the face mask then the chest protectors and chin guards. This went for the umpires as well. The book goes into detail from the people who came up with the design and then into the company that came out with the product. Very few if any made money off any of their ideas the ones who had been able to patent their idea and then sell it to an up and coming sporting good company or one man that made baseball bats actually was made part owner of the company because of his craftsmanship. The book goes into how rules were changed and how one young boy took the New York Giants to court because he was arrested for not returning a foul ball. The judge ruled he could keep the ball since it went into the stands and ordered the Giants to pay a fine for having the young boy spending a night in jail. Another story is about batting helmets and at first they were thought of back in 1921 the year after Roy Chapman was killed by a pitch. But after a few years it really never came up again. One argument at the time was that if they had helmets the batter with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9 would put his head in front of the pitch in order for the winning run to cross the plate. I can’t see that happening. There are many facts like these plus he talks about when concessions started and a few of those men really cleaned up with the ball parks being so close together. The ones I liked were Fredrick Rueckhiem and his brother Luis who created cracker jacks in 1893. And a vaudevillian singer named Jack Norworth who wrote take me out to the ball game. He never even had been to a ball game yet wrote a great baseball song. I really enjoyed this book, made me think of my father when he said as a kid he could remember the smell of roasted peanuts with the cuttings of fresh cut grass. And my grandfather making my first bat on his lathe in his garage and hand sanding it, listening to his old stories. That was the connection we used to have with the sport, which is why I liked this book.

                                                                      Back to You #1 Hard Crush HARD CRUSH                                  ...