Linette | The Home and Garden Cafe

A Chance Of Fate Book Tour~ Enter To Win The Tour Prize

May 14, 2012 By Linette Leave a Comment

HE’S TERRIFIED

Chance McGregor is known as one of the toughest werewolves around. As the Dominion Creek Pack Guardian it’s his job to protect the pack and its laws. Even if that requires him to find his true mate or mate with someone of the council’s choosing. With the Mating Ceremony fast approaching – and Chance a very unwilling participant – he has more on his mind than pack safety. It’s enough to make even the baddest werewolf whine like a puppy.

SHE’S IN CONTROL

Stephanie Taylor is finally making her way in the world. She’s out of a bad marriage, starting a business with her best friend in a great new town, and in control of her stable – if not sometimes boring – life. She can handle boring and she doesn’t need a man to tell her what’s best for her anymore.

WHAT’S A WOLF TO DO?

When Chance runs into Stephanie on the street, he realizes that he found his woman. The problem is she’s a human. Not a problem for him though. Now all he has to do is convince her that they are meant to be together forever; talk the ever-meddling pack council into allowing the mating; and protect his pack from a group of rogue wolves wreaking havoc across the state. With their hearts, and lives, on the line Chance and Stephanie will do the only thing they can…

TAKE A CHANCE ON FATE

Buy it Kindle / Paperback / Nook

Follow the tour!

Tour Prize – $10 Amazon Giftcard, an Autographed copy of A Chance of Fate, Mouse pad, and a coffee cup. Open to US residents. Please fill out the form to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Book Tour, urban fantasy, werewolf book

Choices by Liz Schulte Book Review

May 8, 2012 By Linette 1 Comment

I just finished reading Choices by Liz Schulte. Choices is the second book in the Guardian Trilogy. I’ve also read Secrets, the first book of the trilogy. I have to say I’m definitely hooked! I really enjoyed the characters, especially Olivia.

Here’s a quick synopsis of Choices:

Hearts break. Loved ones are lost. Life keeps moving.

Olivia Martin’s afterlife was more dangerous and confusing than her life ever was. She thought she was ready to come back, to forget about Holden and to let go of the rage consuming her. Fulfilling her destiny as a guardian was all that mattered—the past could stay hidden in the crevices of her mind. However, when guardians are murdered and the evidence points towards jinn, she has to do something. To save anyone’s future, Olivia will have to confront the one person from her past she is terrified to see.

Holden waited for Olivia with the hope he would see her one more time. But when she didn’t return, he found salvation in darkness. The black and twisted road made it easier to forget what he lost than to live with the memory of what he had. An unexpected promotion shoves him into a world of intoxicating power and influence. Holden will have to choose between his new life and the woman he thought was gone forever.

From the ashes of Secrets, Choices are born that will change everything.

Like I said above, I’m definitely a fan of this series! I love how the characters have developed. I think Liz Schulte is becoming one of my favorite authors! Holden is the ultimate bad boy, and you’ve still got to love him!

She also has a great love triangle going on between Holden, Olivia and Quintus. I love how she switched perspective each chapter between the 3 characters, and told the story from their point of view. I think it helped me connect with the characters more to see inside their head, and to know what they were thinking.

I couldn’t put the book down, so I read it in a little over a day from start to finish! I can’t wait to see what happens in the final book, and how things end up between the characters.

I went straight from Secrets to Choices because I was hooked from the start, now I’m anxiously awaiting the final book!

Buy it Paperback/Kindle/ Nook

**Right now this book is free for Kindle if you have Amazon Prime!

Follow Liz Schulte on Twitter / Facebook / Blog

Each day there is a new stop on this book tour. You can check out more excerpts from the book, author interviews, and more reviews if you want to follow the tour here are the links:

Author Liz Schulte is giving away a $50 Amazon Giftcard & 5 Autographed Print Copies, you can check it out and enter to win here: Choices Book Tour

Disclosure: I received a copy of Choices by Liz Schulte to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own. I may receive a commission if you purchase the book through one of the links in this post.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: book tours, Choices, Liz Schulte, urban fantasy

Magical Mother’s Day Giveaway~ Sewing Package

May 7, 2012 By Linette 54 Comments

Welcome to the

Magical Mother’s Day Giveaway Hop

Choices Book Tour $50 Amazon Gift Code Up For Grabs!

May 7, 2012 By Linette 1 Comment

Choices (The Guardian Trilogy)

Hearts break. Loved ones are lost. Life keeps moving.

Olivia Martin’s afterlife was more dangerous and confusing than her life ever was. She thought she was ready to come back, to forget about Holden and to let go of the rage consuming her. Fulfilling her destiny as a guardian was all that mattered—the past could stay hidden in the crevices of her mind. However, when guardians are murdered and the evidence points towards jinn, she has to do something. To save anyone’s future, Olivia will have to confront the one person from her past she is terrified to see.

Holden waited for Olivia with the hope he would see her one more time. But when she didn’t return, he found salvation in darkness. The black and twisted road made it easier to forget what he lost than to live with the memory of what he had. An unexpected promotion shoves him into a world of intoxicating power and influence. Holden will have to choose between his new life and the woman he thought was gone forever.

From the ashes of Secrets, Choices are born that will change everything.

Buy it Paperback
/Kindle/ Nook

Follow Liz Schulte on Twitter / Facebook / Blog

Follow the Tour:

Author Liz Schulte is giving away a $50 Amazon Giftcard & 5 Autographed Print Copies.

Fill out the form below to enter

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Book Tour, Choices, Liz Schulte, urban fantasy

Do You Have a Summer Wood Care Routine?

May 5, 2012 By Linette Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Flood Wood Care for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I can’t believe summer is almost here! I know when summer rolls around at our house it’s time to head to the great outdoors. It also means it’s time to make sure the wood elements in our outdoor space are taken care of so we can enjoy them for many more years to come.

We have several wood care projects we need to take care of this summer, including my son’s playset, and some wood fences and a wooden picnic table my dad made for us several years ago. My son doesn’t play on the playset much anymore, but when I look at it I can still see him sitting on top of the slide playing with his cars and action figures or reading a book when he was younger. The picnic table is also a piece I want to keep for many more years, since my dad made it for me, and it’s a one of a kind, another picnic table just wouldn’t be the same. I definitely want to maintain these outdoor pieces with a reputable wood cleaner and stain.

One brand of wood cleaners and stains I’ve heard of and trust is Flood® Wood Care. They’ve earned a reputation as The Wood Care Specialist, that means they’ve got to be one of the best solutions for our son’s playset and our other outdoor wood care projects. Flood® products, give me the confidence that they will protect, preserve and beautify our wood investments.

Flood® earned it’s reputation as The Wood Care Specialist by providing reliable wood care protection since 1941. They’re experts at outdoor wood care, so I can put my trust in them to make sure the pieces I love don’t fall prey to the summer sun, rain and winds.

Do you have a spring spruce up routine for your outdoor wood pieces? I’d love to hear about it!

Filed Under: Home Tagged With: Flood, outdoor furniture, wood care, wood cleaner, wood stain

Celebrate Cinco De Mayo at Chili's With a #CoronaRita

May 2, 2012 By Linette Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Chili’s Grill & Bar for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I can’t believe summer is almost here already! This year has flown by, and I haven’t had a girls night out with friends since forever! Cinco De Mayo is coming up, and it sounds like we may be able to work things out for a girls night celebration. Cinco De Mayo falls on a weekend this year, so there will be more time to celebrate! I have a $25 Chili’s gift card burning a hole in my pocket, and this sounds like the perfect opportunity to use it!

My friends and I used to get together regularly for a Friday night girl’s night. We’ve been friends since grade school, and we even got together through our college years, even though all three of us graduated from different colleges. We’ve laughed together , and cried together through everything, but for the last year it seems like we have a hard time making our schedule work out to get together much. It sounds like our schedule might work out this weekend! Now we need to get our girl’s night plan together. I’m voting for Chili’s, I’ve been craving one of their salads (and I have that gift card).

I love Chili’s salads! I’ve been hungry for a Quesadilla Explosion Salad, and it would go perfectly with their new CoronaRita as part of my Cinco De Mayo celebration! A CoronaRita at Chili’s sounds like the perfect way to celebrate with my friends! Plus I want to see one of those drinks in person, it looks interesting!

Hopefully we can get it together this weekend, we have quite a bit of catching up and gossip to catch up on!

What’s your favorite thing on the Chili’s menu? Mine is their salads hands down. Have you ever tried the CoronaRita? Does it sound like something you’d like? I like Coronas and Margaritas so this sounds like an intriguing and delicious combination to me!

You must be 21 years or older to drink alcoholic beverages and as always, please remember to drink responsibly.

Filed Under: Entertaining Tagged With: Chilis, Cinco De Mayo, CoronaRita, girls night out

Elemental Book Blast~ $100 Amazon Gift Card Up For Grabs!

May 1, 2012 By Linette Leave a Comment

Over the last year, I’ve become a big fan of Urban Fantasy books, and Indie authors. I’ve been sharing some of my favorites here, and tonight I have a new book to share with you, and a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card.

Just because Ella can burn someone to the ground with her mind doesn’t mean she should.

But she wants to.

For ten years—ever since she was a small child—Ella has been held prisoner on an interstellar starship. Now that she has escaped, she needs answers.

Who is she? Why was she taken? And who is the boy with the beautiful green eyes who haunts her memories?

Is Ella the prophesied Destructor… or will she be the one who’s destroyed?

Blog:

http://emilytwhite.blogspot.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/#!/Emily_T_White

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elemental/212879475408278

Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/emilywhite24/

Emily on Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4807573.Emily_White

Elemental on Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11185432-elemental

Link to grab Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hKI-5OTN3-8

PRAISE FOR ELEMENTAL

“Emily White’s debut novel is a bestseller waiting to happen…I immediately fell in love with Ella.” Author Michelle Pickett

“Who would have thought that mixing faeries and space opera would turn out to be so awesome? … If you’re a sci-fi fan, you really can’t miss this debut!” birth of a new witch, book blogger

“Emily has done a fantastic job describing the worlds and this book has lots of action in it…keep your eye out for the book! Happy Reading! Go on a wonderful adventure to a new world where things are not always as they seem!” Tee loves Kyle Jacobson, goodreads review

“I can honestly say I’ve never read anything quite like Elemental. My hat is off to Ms. White, and anyone else who can take a novel set squarely in the sci-fi genre, throw in fairies and a few obscure King Arthur references, and make it all work.” Keshia Swaim at The Book Addict

“I’m calling it right now. Elemental is the beginning of the next big YA series…I can safely say that I could give a copy of Elemental to my guy friends without

fear of getting punched in the nose.” Author Daniel Cohen

About the Author:

Emily White lives in NY, wedged between two of the Great Lakes and a few feet of snow and ice. She’s spent most of her life running away from the cold, and even spent a year in Iraq, but now contents herself with writing her characters into warm, exotic places in faraway galaxies. When not tapping away at her computer keys, she can be found reading, reading, and reading some more. And when she’s not doing that, she’s usually playing video games with her husband, peek-a-boo with her kids, or walking through her garden, wondering why the bugs insist on eating all her vegetables.

To celebrate the books release Emily has a $100 Amazon Gift Card up for grabs! To enter just use the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Amazon gift card, Elemental, Indie Author

3 Free Kindle Books On Amazon This Week

April 30, 2012 By Linette Leave a Comment

I have the scoop on a couple Kindle Books that will be FREE on Amazon on different days this week. Starting tomorrow with, Cowboy Moon (Lupine Moon) by Cait Lavender.

Cowboy Moon Summary:

Hank Cooper pretended an average bull rider, going from town to town trying to get those elusive eight seconds. But when he and his best friend, Sam, come to the cowboy town of Clovis, California, he meets a woman destined to be his. Hank can’t run away from what he is any longer, but will she?

Tammie Flint is just a girl who wants to have a good time at the rodeo with her best friend–maybe even meet a few cute guys. She didn’t expect to fall in love with a cowboy or to put the lives of everyone she holds dear in danger.

Will any of them survive the Cowboy Moon?

May 4th thru the 6th you can get Twixtby Diane J. Reed for free for your Kindle.

Everyone in Ophir Creek, Idaho knows the wild legend of Corvine O’Dannan, a mysterious Irish woman with “fairy powers” who came to town during the gold rush to find her fortune, only to be betrayed by her lover and meet a tragic end—

Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and her descendent Rose doesn’t have time for such nonsense! After a crash-and-burn marriage, she’s returned to her hometown to renovate her father’s gold-panning business and to start over. But everything changes on her 30th birthday when her friend talks her into doing a love spell. Unbeknownst to them, they conjure the spirit of the very same man who once tormented Rose’s ancestor. Why? Because Rose was Corvine O’Dannan in a past life—and her really bad habit of attracting Mr. Wrong still haunts her, and now jeopardizes her very life…

What Rose doesn’t realize is that along with this dark curse comes an extraordinary blessing—in the form of a soul guardian named Chance Murphy who’s been protecting her for centuries. But this time around, the evil spirit that plagues Rose has stolen Chance’s body. So the only way that Chance can reach her is late at night in her dreams, when he appears as a magical raven who escorts her to an enchanted island off the coast of Ireland. There, Chance becomes a man again, and he shows Rose how to heal her past through the fairies’ special brand of magic. But will Rose finally be able to forge a new future and make the man of her dreams become real? Only if she can once again believe…

The third “Freebie” book I have for you is Curse of the Egyptian Goddess by Lisa Raynes, you’ll be able to find it free for the Kindle on May 5th and 6th.

Curse of the Egyptian Goddess Summary:

Given her ten-year curse that leaves her beaten and bruised, Emma Patrix has grown accustomed to drinking away the pain. And with a trail of dead bodies behind her, it was only a matter of time before the law caught up.

Now she’s accused of murder and she must flee the country to find the one man who can help her break the curse-Calvin Konrad. She finally catches up with him in Egypt, but he’s not the same sweet boy she remembers from her childhood. And getting him to help her proves more difficult than she ever imagined.

Now I need to remember get to Amazon and get these books over the next couple days! I really want to read Cowboy Moon, I’ve read another book by Cait Lavender in the same series and really enjoyed it!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, free amazon kindle books, Free Kindle books, free urban fantasy books, Kindle, Kindle books, urban fantasy

Fate’s Design Excerpt

April 27, 2012 By Linette 1 Comment

Earlier in the week I introduced you to the Fate’s Design book tour (You can check out the other stops on the tour, and a cool giveaway.). Today I want to share a quick excerpt from this book with you. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but this excerpt and the summary I’ve read both make me want to check it out! I may have to download a copy for my Nook!

Here’s a quick summary of the book:
Fate Series Book One

A summer vacation in Italy with her twin sister, Morgan, is just what Megan Romano needs. But instead of fun, wine, and relaxation, she finds unexpected romance. Alexandros DiPiero, a sexy and mysterious Italian businessman, falls for Megan the minute he lays eyes on her, but Megan knows it’s too good to be true.

Increasingly haunting dreams that warn of danger and destiny plague Megan’s every sleeping moment. As her nightmares become deadly and her love life heats up, Megan will come face to face with her worst fear.

Here is an excerpt from Fate’s Design by Lola James:

A tall, grey-haired man was staring at me from a far wall. He looked more obvious than
inconspicuous, wearing a trench coat in the summer season. As soon as he saw me spot him,
he dropped his eyes to the newspaper that covered the rest of his face. I now watched his every
move. He slowly eased away from the wall that supported him and joined a group of people
exiting the plane. The man shuffled into the crowd, and I lost him.

I stood up quickly, alerting Morgan, and she stood up next to me.

“What, what’s wrong?” she asked, startled by my movement.

I couldn’t help but wonder why he stared at me, but I didn’t want Morgan to panic. “I just
thought I saw a celebrity.” I shrugged, knowing I wouldn’t care if I really did.

“REALLY? Who?” she shrieked.

“It was no one.” I sat down and grabbed my purse, pretending to look for something
as Morgan peered around the airport. She sat eventually and continued with the magazine.
Meanwhile, I kept a lookout for the creep in the overcoat.

Our plane boarded shortly after that, and I didn’t see him get on. I relaxed after we took off. I
hoped we left that lurker behind in Germany.

Buy on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

What do you think? Have you had a chance to check out this book yet?

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: book excerpt, Book Tour, Fate's Design

Plato Natural and Organic Pet Treats Giveaway

April 23, 2012 By Linette Leave a Comment

What should you feed your dog? Whats in your dog treats? All dog owners have to face these questions sooner or later.

Dogs are omnivores. They’ll eat anything (including things that, to us, shouldn’t be edible). The good thing about Plato Pet Treats, say, your favorite pair of slippers—is how they can contribute to your dog’s health.

Thinker Treats -

They use only the best all-natural and organic ingredients that will assist in your pets nutritional needs, without any artifcial preservatives, meat by-products or meals. This truly makes THINKERS the smart treat for your pet, with a taste that’ll have their tail wagging every time they see the bag.

Original Plato Pet Treats

They come in three flavors – Salmon, Chicken, and Duck

Natural ingredients, fortified with antioxidant vitamins, and zinc
No artificial colors, flavors, synthetic preservatives, or GMO’s (genetically modified organisms)
Naturally preserved.
Antioxidant vitamins E and C

No meat by-products or meals

New! Farmers MarketTreats, with Pro-Biotics!

Farmers Market treats are all-natural, made from ingredients grown right here in the good ole US of A, and as fresh as if you’d hand-picked them yourself at the local farmers market. No mystery meats. No meal or meat by-products. No artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or GMO’s (short for—shudder—genetically modified organisms). So next time your dog does one of his favorite tricks, reward him with one of theirs: New Farmers Market pet treats.

Find a Store or buy them online!

Want to treat your dog and win $100 Worth of Pet Treats from Plato Pet Treats?

Fill out the form below to enter to win! Brought to you by Blog It Forward

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Home Tagged With: dog, giveaway, natural, organic, pet treats, pets