TLC BLOG TOUR: Montpelier Tomorrow by Marylee MacDonald

Title: Montpelier Tomorrow

Author: Marylee MacDonald
Genre: Adult Fiction Contemporary
Publisher: All Things That Matter Press

Release Date: August 21/2014

Acquired: E-copy provided by publisher

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon

Mid-life mom, Colleen Gallagher would do anything to protect her children from harm. When her daughter's husband falls ill with ALS, Colleen rolls up her sleeves and moves in, juggling the multiple roles of grandma, cook, and caregiver, only to discover that even her superhuman efforts can't fix what's wrong.

"An affecting, deeply honest novel; at the same time, a lacerating indictment of our modern health care system."--Kirkus Reviews

"A heartrending story of love, loss and the endurance of the human spirit."--Literary Fiction Book Review

"Characters are vivid, relatable, and all too imperfectly human." --Jewell Parker Rhodes

"Each time I have reread this novel, I have felt rewarded by the connection it offers to the central character, Colleen. I can think of no single page in which her voice is not an irreplaceable gift to the reader." --Kevin McIlvoy

"An engrossing account of the impossible choices faced by caregivers..." --Kathryn Shonk

REVIEW: The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn

Title: The Intern's Handbook

Author: Shane Kuhn
Genre: Adult Comedic Thriller
Publisher: Simon & Shuster

Release Date: April 8/2014

Acquired: Print copy sent by publisher

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo

Interns are invisible. That’s the mantra behind HR, Inc., an elite "placement agency" that doubles as a network of assassins-for-hire, taking down high-profile executives who wouldn't be able to remember an intern’s name if their lives depended on it.

At the ripe old age of twenty-five, John Lago is already New York City’s most successful hit man. He’s also an intern at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, clocking eighty hours a week getting coffee, answering phones, and doing all the grunt work no one else wants to do. But he isn't trying to claw his way to the top of the corporate food chain. He was hired to assassinate one of the firm’s heavily guarded partners. His internship is the perfect cover, enabling him to gather intel and gain access in order to pull off a clean, untraceable hit.

The Intern’s Handbook is John Lago's unofficial survival guide for new recruits at HR, Inc. (Rule #4: "Learn how to make the perfect cup of coffee: you make an exec the best coffee he’s ever had, and he will make sure you’re at his desk every morning for a repeat performance. That’s repetitive exposure, which begets access and trust. 44% of my kills came from my superior coffee-making abilities.")

Part confessional, part how-to, the handbook chronicles John’s final assignment, a twisted thrill ride in which he is pitted against the toughest—and sexiest—adversary he’s ever faced: Alice, an FBI agent assigned to take down the same law partner he’s been assigned to kill.

TLC BLOG TOUR: Again and Again by Ellen Bravo

Title: Again and Again

Author: Ellen Bravo
Genre: Adult Fiction-Controversial
Publisher: She Writes Press

Release Date: August 11/2015

Acquired: E-book provided by publisher

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/
BookDepository

Deborah Borenstein has come a long way since 1978, when she left Cleveland for college in upstate New York to seek sophistication and “a world that matters.” Thirty-two years later in Washington, D.C., Deborah is making a difference for women who’ve been traumatized and stigmatized by rape as the director of an influential activist group, Breaking the Silence. She’s still happily married to her post-college sweetheart, a political consultant, and delighted to be a mom to her spirited teenage daughter. Suddenly, her world is shaken—by searing memories of what happened three decades earlier at her alma mater, Danforth University. A tenacious reporter storms in on Deborah, seeking confirmation of an anonymous source exposing William Quincy, former college dreamboat and current contender for Senator, as a college rapist.

Could Quincy, a pro-choice Republican supported by women, feminists included, be guilty of that brutal crime? Deborah knows, because she caught him in the act of committing it. Still, she owes a debt to Quincy’s victim: her college roommate, Elizabeth Golmbach. A small town Midwestern nice girl, with wit and smarts, Liddie paid dearly for “letting herself” get raped and then—at Deborah’s urging—daring to press charges against her well-connected, well-off rapist. Deborah is wary of reopening old wounds—Liddie’s and her own.

Will Deborah move beyond a past of pain and guilt? Can she reconcile her commitment to speaking out against rape with saying nothing to stop a rapist from winning the Senate? What loyalty does she owe her husband, who is trying to resurrect his flagging career by getting a win for Quincy’s opponent? The answers will test her as a mother and a feminist and a friend. Taking on hot-button issues from sexual violence on campus to the male domination of politics, Again and Again is a gripping novel about a topics that are all too pervasive in the real world. I hope you will give it serious consideration for review or feature coverage.