Book Selections in February

February was the month of love so why not engross myself in literature that has to do with love and romance.  Being taking away by my imagination to a different time and place . To be wooed with sweet words and intense innocent feelings, to get sucked into the melodrama of the characters. I get consumed with the need to find out what happens. To be introduced to characters that seem like forever playboys and finding out what young lady will make the shield they have around there heart crumble into a million pieces. This is the beauty of reading, your imagination can run wild and it rivals anything you can watch on the boob tube (aka the TV).

Here is a list of books I have read so far.

Johanna Lindsey – Malory-Anderson Family Saga Series

1. Love Only Once (1985)
2. Tender Rebel (1988)
3. Gentle Rogue (1990)
4. The Magic of You (1993)
5. Say You Love Me (1996)
6. The Present (1998)

Cynthia Wright – Silver Storm – Raveneau Novel #1

Annette Blair- Undeniable Rogue – A Regency Historical Book #1

Yes that is 8 book in a little over 3 weeks. I have been a manic at reading.  As you can tell I love reading books that belong in series. Getting to know the characters seeing how the author unfolds their lives and yet still keep them intertwined.  The sad part for me is to see the series end. You invest so much emotions when you fall in love with so many characters. But that’s when you pick up a new books and enjoy.

What books are you reading now? Do you want reviews of the books?  Let me know.

Do you like this post? Like us, follow us on twitter and facebook. Have a book recommendation let us know.

Get to know Momoftornado follow me on twitter at @Katiiz95 or follow my blog at  www.momoftornado.wordpress.com

 



* All books read were soley purchased by me and I recieve no monetary compensation for there mentions. 

Lucky Harbor: A Series Reviewcy c g

I spent some time in the past couple of weeks reading. It had been nearly two months since I had sat down with a book to read. A lot of things were happening in my real life that kept me from curling up with a good story that I could get myself lost in.

When Reading and Winen interviewed TJ Lutgring she told us that one of her go-to books is Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis. When we looked it up, we realized that it's Book 1 of the Lucky Harbor series. I've read books 1-5 now, this series really brought me in and now I can't wait for Book 6 to be available at my public library so that I may be all caught up.

Simply Irresistible - Book 1

What is on my reading list..

What have I been up to? Well let’s say life has gotten in the way of my reading. I have a wonderful list of books just waiting for me to find some special me time. So I thought I would jump start my reading and let you guys know what will be on my reading list for the next few months.

Author: Christie Ridgway

 Crush on You

 Then He Kissed Me

 Can’t Hurry Love

Author : Laurel K Hamilton

Flirt - Book 18 of the Anita Blake series

Bullet – Book 19 of the Anita Blake series

Hit List – Book 20 of the Anita Blake series

Author : Donna McDonald

The Demon of Synar – Book One of the Forced to Serve series

With a ton of changes going on at work and my son celebrating his birthday this month I’ve been pretty busy but I think it’s time I get back to my special place and curl up with a good book and a good bottle, oops, I mean glass of wine.  

My big problem now is with so many good books waiting for me which one do I pick first?? 

What’s on your reading list as the summer starts to come to an end? Parents, do you find it easier to reads when the school season begins?

Want to know more about me follow me at www.momoftornado.wordpress.com or follow me on Twitter at Katiiz95.

Book Review - Sleeping with Paris

Sleeping with Paris – By Juliette Sobanet

Charlotte Summers quit her job and was ready to begin her new journey in Paris. What a dream, engaged to a hot shot lawyer and ready to spend the next year living her dream of studying at Sorbonne University in France.  What can possibly go wrong? You name it, it happened. No job, no fiancée, no home.

I won’t tell you what happened but let’s just say Charlotte learned many lessons on how to deal with a broken heart. We all find ourselves in self-loathing sadness that comes after a harsh breakup that we never saw coming. I have to give it to Charlotte for having the brass balls to actually get on that plane to Paris, alone. But once she’s there, her anger, her hurt, and her vengefulness get the best of her. Charlotte finds a perfect outlet on how to get her message across on how not to ever get hurt.  Of course you can’t be in the city of love and not find it literally feeding you chocolate…Le sigh.. But once your heart is hurt it is blind to the other possibilities life has for you.

I absolutely adored this book. Having a cheating ex myself I can totally relate and completely understood her reaction to the world. I got to thinking could I have seen the signs? What did I do? But as I read Charlotte’s journey to rediscovery  I discovered that some pains don’t happen because of what we did; some pains happen because there are selfish pricks that just think the world revolves around them. OK so .. I’m still a bit bitter but it’s ok. I was able to laugh and cheer and say YAY, GIRL POWER!  It was beautiful to see just how she turned so many negatives into positives. I would recommend this book as a great, fun, light hearted summer read. I've shared this book with all my friends and hope they like it as much as I did. Not only did it make me laugh out loud as I rode on public transportation or make me cheer for her when she would be so bold but it also made me remember the misery I felt and how I never want to feel like that or let anyone effect me like that again. No matter what happens, in the end we have the ultimate control.  

 

I can’t wait to open up the next book Kissed in Paris.

What did you think of Sleeping with Paris? Would you do what she did if your heart was broken enough? Love is blind.. but so is revenge.

You can find Juliette Sobanet on Twitter, her blog, 

Do you have books you are loving this summer? Tweet us or like us on Facebook... Share your thougts and book recommendations with us.

Don't forget to check out my Blog: Mom of Tornado.

*Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Reading and Winen Interviews TJ Lutgring

We'd like to welcome TJ Lutgring to Reading & Winen, please raise your glass and toast our guest, with our wine glasses raised a big cheers from all of us to you. We would like to thank TJ Lutgring for spending an hour with us.

We had the privilege to interview up and coming author TJ Lutgring, author of The Difference Between Soccer and Football, which she plans to turn into a series. She lives in southern Indiana with her loving pets. She is a feature writer for her local newspaper and a volunteer PR/Communications talent to a local semi-pro indoor soccer team. TJ Lutgring also works as a soccer editor for AerysSports.com. She loves to spend time watching soccer and going to USMNT games. She also religiously follows Manchester United and Columbus Crew. We hope you enjoy reading our interview as much as we had fun interviewing TJ Lutgring.

What inspired you to write a Chick Lit/Romance about soccer?
 I felt that there weren’t any books that represented that particular sport in that genre. I’ve always seen romance books about football & basketball and I felt that the soccer needed a good romance book too.

How many books will the series entail?
I'm thinking the series will contain 3 books. The first book was The Difference Between Soccer and Football, the second book will be Football is Easy. I don't have a title for the third book yet.

Do you have the plot lines figured out for the books?

I have an idea for the second book Football Is Easy, but nothing is set in stone. I'm not a structured writer, I go with the flow. Some writers are good at creating an outline and knowing what kind of dialogue will be discussed. I let the character voice out what they want to say, it's almost as if the character is living and breathing. 

Can we get an inside scoop of who the next book will be about? Who will be the main characters?

In the second book Football Is Easy, the main characters will be Katie & Jack. Someone is getting married! The characters from Difference Between Soccer And Football will make re-appearances and there will be some new characters. (We got the inside scoop as to who it is, but decided not to ruin it for you. It's going to be good! )

We are dying to know who inspired the character Cris?
Cris is a combination of different soccer players. It's not anyone in particular. I just took a little of each player that I like and admire, and developed the character. Once I had the character developed, he just took on a life of his own and became Cris Davis. A lot of people believe it's Cristiano Ronaldo,but it isn't, I just want to clarify that.  

Can you clarify if the character Marisol was at all inspired by Irina Shayak? That character has been bugging me! I can't stand her!
LOL! No, she wasn't the inspiration for Marisol. I get that question a lot also. I can see why the readers would associate her with that character. I don't know how she came about, but she just did. It was actually fun to write her in the book. It's fun playing or should I say writing the bad girl. Well let me just say, you wrote a pretty darn good bad girl. We hated her so much we wanted to slap her! Ugh, she killed us!

When did you fall in love with the game of soccer?
I fell in love with the sport during my freshman year of college. This guy in my speech class was the defender for our university's team and invited us to watch him play. I decided to go see him play and cheer him on. Well, he ended up not playing, but that was okay because I fell in love with soccer. It was the most exciting game I had ever seen. After that, I wanted to know everything about the sport. I went home and researched everything I could and started to watch games. It became a love affair and I have never looked back. I love the sport!

How do you feel about FIFA's new rule of not allowing players to remove their shirts?
LOL! I'm against the rule! I think the players should be allowed to celebrate their goals in any which way, that's not offensive, please. I think the players at the moment of achieving a goal get wrapped up in their emotions.They don't think about what kind of celebratory dance or if they will take off their shirts to celebrate their achievements, they just go with the flow. They should be allowed to celebrate it freely without being penalized. Plus on the other hand it's a great marketing ploy to get more women to watch the sport, so they can admire the players. LOL! Which is a bonus right? We couldn't agree more with you Trista. Let see more fabulous Abs and muscles. Le sigh.

When you write a love scene in your stories, what goes through your mind? How do you mentally prepare for it? Do you listen to a certain song or music? Or watch a romantic movie?
LOL! I honestly write a love scene right before I'm about to go to bed. I take that hour before going to sleep, when I'm in a daze and just write the scene. I don't think about what I'm going to write or the dialogue. I just write the scene out. Otherwise I will over analyze the scene and question if he would do that to her, or if she would say that to him. I would just pick the scene apart. So I just write it out, and then go over it later. I also listen to music. Actually music is a big influence in my writing. I like to listen to classical music to get my creative juices flowing. I also wrote The Difference Between Soccer and Football to particular songs. I made up my own soundtrack, if you will, to the book. I think I will post the list of different songs on my FB page or my video blog. I can also give you guys a list of the songs to you if you want. We would love that! 

What is your favorite curse word?  LOL, Son of a bitch.

What is your favorite Romantic/Chick Flick movie of all time?
I can only pick one?! Oh man that's hard. Okay. We know it’s hard, so we'll give you 2 movies. It would have to be the recent BBC version of Persuasion and also Pride & Prejudice with Kiera Knightly. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan. I love anything by Jane Austen

What is your favorite adult beverage?
I'm normally a wine drinker. In Southern Indiana ther are about 13 wineries. One of the wineries here makes a blueberry wine which is actually really good. I prefer my wine sweet. At times, I enjoy Cranberry Juice, Vodka & Red Bull. I like it because it perks me up.

If you could only recommend one book that is a must read, which one would it be?
Wow! That's a hard one. I have like 3 boxes of books here that I absolute love. One book, huh? Hmmmm, well I guess it would be Simply Irresistible (Lucky Harbor Series #1) by Jill Shalvis. The Lucky Harbor series is fantastic and I absolutely love them. I read the series when I need a pick me up. It's one of those books I can read again and give a collective sigh. Sounds like a fun read! We'll just have to check it out. Okay, I will be the one to ask the embarrassing question. How is the men and the sex in the book? LOL, the men are hot and sex scenes are pretty HOT aslo. Yes! That's what we like to hear, not that we care. Though it's fun to read sometimes. (Blushes)

If you were stuck in a luxurious hotel room with any man, drinks and a book? Who would it be? What drink and what book?
Well the guy would be a soccer player his name is #%$^&*$#^*^^*. LOL! Actually, TJ Lutgring was kind enough, to divulge who it was. We just decided to keep it a mystery. We did look him up and he is HOT. As for the drink it would have to be wine. The book would have to be Simply Irresistible (Lucky Harbor Series #1) by Jill Shalvis.

So what is the difference between soccer & football?
LOL! There is no difference between the two. I think if anything the difference is on how the sport is viewed in America vs internationally. I think I named the book that because Maddie is from America and she viewed soccer from the American stand point. We see what you mean,  little kids playing for AYSO or MLS. Yeah, we get what you are saying. It makes sense! As opposed to internationally where the sport is followed as a religion and with a lot of pride. I do think that America is starting to open up more to the sport. Which is great!

I know that you released the book The Difference Between Soccer And Football last year. Which you know that WE loved it! However you had a couple of not so nice reviews. Which gutted you. Now with your re-release of the book, what made you change your mind? How do you feel now?
Thank you ladies for being so supportive and wonderful about the book. When I released the book I had a lot of positive feedback. It never crossed my mind how I would feel or react to negative reviews. So when I did encounter that, it broke me. I was heart broken and I took the book down. I felt as if all my hard work was not good enough. I doubted myself as a writer. It was the lowest point in my career so far. 

So what made you change your mind and push on thru with the book? Which by the way, pleases us to no end! Since we are dying to know what happens in the series. 
Honestly, I took a moment to let the bad reviews sink in and deal with the emotions. I thought about the bad and the good reviews that were said. I got so much love from my readers, they are awesome. I got so many people complimenting me about the book. I felt I couldn't let you guys down. If anything those bad reviews made me stronger and made me realize that not everyone is going to like my book and that is okay. I'm okay with that.  

We were all taught this as little kids "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all." Perhaps adults should practice that in book reviews or at least be civil about it. Well you know that you have fans here! We love your book and patiently wait for the next book Football Is Easy. We look forward to working with TJ Lutgring for a future fun giveaway. We see great things coming from this author. 


Ciao Bellas,
Molly 

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Love in a Winery

The Three Kisses Trilogy, written by Christie Ridgway, is about two families, the Bacis and the Bennetts. These two families have been business partners & feuding for the past 100 years. The Bacis are winemakers and the Bennetts are silent partners in the vineyard. The Bacis are a hard working family who immigrated from Italy. They came over during the Gold Rush Era. The Bennetts are a family that come from money and a higher social standing. The two families became partners ever since they were searching for Gold. Alonzo Baci fell in love with Anne who was a high society girl, the only problem was that Liam Bennett was also in love with her. In the end, Anne chose Alonzo and Liam was nothing more than a silent partner, rival, and friend. The rest is history and in my opinion it makes good drama. 




Crush On You starts off with Liam Bennett and his brother Seth learning that their dad has an illegitimate child. Actually the whole town learned about their dad’s secret when the will was read. The “Bastard Bennett” as the town of Edenville labeled him, Penn Bennett is the host of the popular tv show “Build Me Up”. Imagine Penn Bennett as Ty Pennington in Extreme Home Makeover. Penn Bennett didn’t have the privileged upbringing that his brothers Liam & Seth had, he had a rather tough upbringing raised by a struggling single mother. He came to Edenville to meet his brothers and to deal with the inheritance his father left him. It had always been him and his mother and the thought that he has a family is very daunting to him. Actually he has his mind set to tell his brothers that he doesn’t want anything to do with the inheritance nor them. While meeting with his brothers he becomes acquainted with the Baci sisters since the two families need to discuss the dire situation of the Tanti Baci Vineyard. At this impromptu meeting Alessandra is all decked out in her wedding dress and flip flops. The sight of this Italian beauty in full vestal wear and flip flops has peaked his interest. As soon as he’s about to bail on his new found family and extra income, his heart and his brain feel otherwise.


Alessandra Baci is set on saving and restoring the Tanti Baci Vineyard. She believes that by restoring the 100-year-old cottage where her ancestors lived happily it can become a wedding venue. A source to bring in much needed cash flow to the struggling vineyard. Everyone is willing to cut their losses and sell the vineyard. Alessandra is one to believe in “Happily Ever After” and is set on trying to save the Vineyard. The Tanti Baci Vineyard legend is that anyone who takes their true love to the cottage will have the ghost of Alonzo & Anne appear to them. No one seems to care nor believe that she’ll be able to pull this miracle off. At the sight of her distress and seeing how everyone is against her, Penn decides to step in and help out. He commits to helping with the construction of the old cottage to become the wedding destination of the vineyard. His only stipulation is that Alessandra must work with him on this project. She is against this arrangement, however she’s willing to do anything to save her family's vineyard. Penn is enjoying the torment and chemistry that he shares with Alessandra, the “Nun of Napa”. Allie was dubbed that unfortunate nickname by the town of Edenville due to a tragic event that happened 5 years before. Ever since that life altering tragedy she has sworn off men and finding her “Happily Ever After”. This has Penn Bennett wondering what it is about this Italian beauty that has him enchanted and wanting to learn more about her. He wants nothing more than to free her from being a “Nun” and start living. Question is, is she really a “Nun”? Can Alessandra let go of her “Nun” like qualities and find her happily ever after? Or will she always live up to the image of the “Nun of Napa”?

Then He Kissed Me


Stephania Baci or Stevie, as she’s affectionately known by everyone, owns her own business, Napa Princess Limousine service. She is the middle sister of the Baci sisters and the tomboy of the family. She is hired to pick up her ex-boyfriend Emerson Platt, his fiancée Roxanne and a tall mystery man. Business is normally slow in the winter so she had no choice but to take the gig to chauffeur her ex, his fiancée and the hot mysterious man. Emmerson broke-up with Stevie a couple of months before. Their relationship wasn’t even cold before she found out that he was seeing someone, let alone that he was engaged to a princess. The tall, hot, mysterious man is Princess Roxanne’s brother Prince Jacques Parnin aka Jack. Not only is Stevie having to chauffeur her ex and company around for New Year’s Eve she also has to play event planner. They decided to have the wedding at the Tanti Baci Vineyard. Alessandra normally handles all the wedding details at the vineyard but due to her broken foot Stephania has to step in and help the struggling vineyard. She’s already trying to be civil about the whole affair, now she has to work closely with the not-so-trusting brother Jack. He has decided to tag along for the nuptial planning to make sure that no one interferes with his little sister’s wedding. By ‘no one’ he means his soon to be brother-in-law’s ex-girlfriend Stephania Baci. He has the feeling that she will do something to sabotage the wedding. In order to prevent this from happening he has informed Stephania that they will be working very closely on all the wedding details. Not only does Stevie have to deal with her ex’s new fiancée but also her brother. She doesn’t want anything to do with him since she becomes unhinged whenever he’s around. Jack not only wants to make sure the wedding goes through but he’s intrigued with Stevie and her tomboy ways. He wants to know if there is a feminine side to this Napa Princess. Will Stevie finally get over her ex-boyfriend or will she wreck the wedding?



Can’t Hurry Love is about the oldest Baci sister Giuliana Bacci. Giuliana has tried her hardest to help her sister out in the Tanti Baci Vineyard. However she has no desire to continue working at the struggling vineyard and deal with the eldest Bennett, Liam. Liam Bennett seems to bring out the worst in her mood and in her personality. At the same time he makes her heart flutter and skip a beat. Liam has no idea what he has done to cause Giulianna to despise him at the mere sight of him. Growing up they were inseparable, the feud began ever since they left for a trip to Italy after high school. Giuliana is trying her hardest to keep so many secrets bottled inside, so much so that all she wants is a life far away. Will her feud with Liam end sourly? Or will the Bacis and Bennetts find harmony and put an end to the family drama?

I hope I didn’t give too much away in my summary of these great books. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this trilogy. I borrowed Crush On You from the public library E-book catalog. I was hooked from the first chapter of the book. So I went to my Barnes & Noble library and decided to buy the 3 books. The way Christie Ridgway describes the Baci girls, the Bennett boys and everyone in the town made me want to visit Edenville. I live in northern California near San Francisco, I would love nothing more than to visit Tanti Baci Vineyards. The story lines she created for each sister were heart warming. Out of the three books, I think my favorite is the second one Then He Kissed Me. I’m partial to that one because the description of Jack Parnin is swoon worthy for me. I love a tall, dark haired, tanned, European and he speaks French. Drool! Ugh the way he treated Stevie is my dream man. The other books were equally good and the sesy (sex) scenes were hot, hot, hot. I found myself wanting more and more after each chapter. Luckily the author gave us a look into what was happening in the main characters lives of Alessandra, Stephania & Giuliana in each book. Which I love! Once I finish a book that I love, I’m always left wondering what happens to the characters? These books left me yearning to visit a winery, drink lots of wine and hoping to meet a great family of vintners. I highly recommend this series, I think you’ll fall in love at the vineyard!


You can find Christie Ridgway's website here for more information about these and other books. You can also follow her on Twitter.



Ciao Bellas,
Molly


Disclaimer: No compensation was received for this post, all books were personally purchased. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Reading & Winen meets Magic Mike

Special Screening event of Magic Mike

I’ve never been to an advanced screening of a movie so imagine my surprise when I received the tickets for the one movie this single mom would have found a sitter to go see. SCORE! Even better was when I would not have to fight the hoard of men and women coming out on opening night to also check out the beauty that is Magic Mike. 


Magic Mike, starring Channing Tatum as Mike, the stripper Entrepreneur, and Matthew McConaughey  as Dallas, the Head honcho of his male strip review. The movie also stars, Alex Pettyfer, Gabriel Iglesisas, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, and a huge surprise to me, Kevin Nash. The movie was directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Reid Carolin.  Magic Mike is a story inspired by Tatum as a young, male stripper. Mike is a hot, business savvy guy enjoying the good life that stripping has afforded him. Women, drugs and money surround his life. The Kid is a down on his luck college drop out who gets wrapped up in Mike's life after a chance meeting.

As soon as the theater went dark and the movie started to roll, the ladies in the audience were ready to see it all. I won’t give up all the juicy details but let’s just say, "LADIES, DON’T BLINK". The hooting and hollering was infections and soon I too was giggling from the excitement of the hotties on the screen. Now, it’s not all strippers and booze; there is a story line. I might actually have to watch it again because for the most part my mind was straight in the gutter. How could it not be with Tatum’s very impressive dance moves that included a lot of belly rolls and hip trusting? For those that have been to male strip joints, it bring back memories and for those that have never been, it might give them the itch to actually check one out. I won’t be surprised if the local male strip joints see a boost in business.

Just like all stripper type movies there is a basic model - stripper gets wrapped up in a life he can’t handle.  Personally, I feel they could have added another 30 min of script to it to evolve the story line a bit more. But you won’t really care much about that once you see the final dance.

Being a single mom I don’t get a chance to see many movies, but I would definitely recommend this flick. Who doesn't want to see glorious smooth and tanned behinds gyrating to the beats of Ginuwine and classics like It’s Raining Men? Make it a night out with your besties because after the movie I guarantee you won’t want to just go home.

Molly & Letty at Magic Mike Screening

Magic Mike (click to watch the official trailer)

In Theaters: Jun 29, 2012 nationwide
Rated R; 1 hr. 50 min.
Warner Bros. Pictures

Want to see more movie reviews? Let us know..

Follow Letty on Twitter at @Katiiz95 

Read my personal blog - www.momoftornado.wordpress.com

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed in this article are solely of my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. No compensation was received for this post. Free screening passes were received via gofobo.com and courtesy of KMVQ - 99.7 [NOW!]