Great Review for What More Could You Wish For

I can't even describe the feeling of reading this wonderful review - my heart is swelling with gratitude and delight.Thanks so much to Cindy Roesel, and ChickLitCentral

By Cindy Roesel
Put a big fat chocolate cupcake lit up with candles on the cover of Samantha Hoffman’s first novel, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WISH FOR, and you know you’ve captured my attention. Now let’s read what’s between these pages, shall we.
Libby Carson has a wonderful life. She has a lovely family, great friends, her seamstress business is doing well, a guy who is kind and reliable and blah, blah, blah. She’s days away from turning fifty and surprise (!!!), her boyfriend proposes. For any other girl that might be a good thing, but Libby has been down that aisle twice before and it isn’t in her plans to say “I do” to any dude again. Suddenly steady guy turns into pushy guy just as she reconnects with another guy from way back in high-school. In fact, long lost guy just happens to be her old long lost flame. This raises Miss Libby Carson’s mid-life crisis to defcon five. She thought everything was neat and tidy in her nice little world. Guess not and now she has a few things to think about.
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW.

My Book at O'Hare!

Is there anything more fun than seeing your book in a bookstore? Well, I suppose seeing them flying off the shelves would top that, but meanwhile, here's a photo that my friend Dennis West sent me. It's from Barbara's Bookstore at O'Hare, Terminal 3.
I'm in illustrious company here: John Irving below, Alice Hoffman to my left, Loving Frank and The Kite Runner  to my right.
Next time you're in a bookstore look for my book, send me a picture and I'll send you a signed copy!

What's Porn and What's Not?

What do you think of this picture? Sweet shot of a dad and his daughter, or sexual predator/victim?
I hope right now you're thinking, "What the hell are you talking about? Sexual predator?" because if you're not...what's wrong with you? 
Serge Bielanko (in the photo) wrote an article about men's fashions on Babble.com and accompanied it with this image. And then he got a boatload of hate mail. Now, if we're going to critique his fashion sense I'm all over that with negative reviews but that wasn't it. People wrote about how he has his arm around a nearly naked little girl (his daughter). 2,326 comments on the post the first day. Not all of it negative, but way more than you can imagine.
The question is, is bad publicity better than no publicity at all? After all, look at all the attention he got for his writing. Good or bad?
A friend of mine recently got a negative review of her book in USA Today. Actually it wasn't just negative, it was rude and insulting. That hurts, I know. But it's in USA Today. Is that the silver lining?

Book Review: Split Estate by Charlotte Bacon

I'm in awe of Charlotte Bacon's talent; the beautiful way she uses words, the way she brings her characters to life. This is writing at it's best. Split Estate is the story of a family in the aftermath of a suicide; how they deal with it (or don't), how they learn to live with it, the choices they make. There are four main characters and I was engaged with, and rooting for, each of them. They're not perfect people, they're real and human.
I was sad when this book ended. I was as enthralled with Bacon's writing, her amazing turn of phrase, as I was with her story.
My only problem with this book was the ending. I'm not a happily-ever-after person, I don't need a book wrapped up in a tidy bow, but this feels unfinished. I wanted just a little bit more.
Still, that's not a deal-breaker, it's an amazingly beautiful book, but that's the only reason I didn't give it five stars.
I can't wait to read more of Charlotte Bacon's work.