Super Book Blast & Contest: Molly Harper/Duets by Emelle Gamble

Emelle will award a signed paperback of MOLLY HARPER with bonus novella DUETS included (US ONLY) to THREE randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour. Please click the tour banner at the top to see other stops on this tour.

Movie star Molly Harper has it all, beauty, success in her field, and a loving family and marriage to actor Ben Delmonico. Norma Wintz, Molly’s mother, has it all, a lovely life style and two children who adore her, and a respite from the battle against cancer she’s been fighting. Anne Sullivan, at age fifty, is optimistic that her move to sunny Santa Barbara, California, will allow her to be closer to her youngest son and his family, and help her start her life anew after the death of her beloved husband.

But all three of these women, despite their considerable blessings, are plunged into turmoil when the most intimate of secrets that ties their lives together is revealed. At this same time, Molly Harper is confronted with the news that her marriage to actor Ben Delmonico is over. As she navigates this heartbreak and tries to keep the personal details of the drama off the front pages of the newspapers, Molly must also find a way to once and forever negotiate a way forward with her ex- lover and best friend, the volatile and compelling Cruz Morales.

How each of these characters handles the resulting upheaval in their own life, and in their relationships with one another, forms the compelling story of family, secrets and trust in the romantic women’s fiction novel, Molly Harper.



DUETS offers alternating looks into the lives of two women who would seem to have little or nothing in common.

Screen star Molly Harper has it all…beauty, success in her profession, a loving family and an upcoming marriage to actor Ben Delmonico. But as Molly is on the verge of marrying the man who has swept her off her feet, she still wonders if he hasn’t swept all her feelings for her first love away, Cruz Morales.

A handsome and cerebral college professor, Molly and Cruz have an on-again, off-again history stretching back to Molly’s early teen years. He’s not a man who a girl can ever forget about, and his feelings for Molly are equally conflicted.

Anne Sullivan, happily married for twenty-five years, is fighting to hold onto the man she loves, and hold off a confrontation that could shatter her family’s image of what they are. It involves the beautiful screen star and her mother, upper crust matron Norma Wintz, who Anne has traveled to California to meet under the most dramatic of circumstances.

Duets confronts the most intimate type of family secret that ties these two women’s lives together, just as chance events turn Molly and Anne’s worlds upside down.

Enjoy an excerpt from DUETS:

Anne Sullivan looked down at her watch.

One twenty-one p.m. Norma Wintz was twenty minutes late.

Anne leaned back against the banquette and avoided making eye contact with the hovering waitress. She folded her hands together and wondered if her face looked tight as cellophane stretched over a bowl of tuna salad. That’s how it felt.

I shouldn’t have come. She glanced around the unfamiliar restaurant. It was all glass and mirrors; chock full of shockingly glamorous Californians surely leading shockingly exciting lives. People who wouldn’t understand why a widow from Potomac, Maryland was breaking into sobs and intruding on their lunch experience.

Which is probably what I’m going to do once Norma arrives, she thought. She had tried to prepare herself for meeting the woman, face-to-face, who had adopted her baby thirty-five years ago, but Anne wasn’t sure she was going to be able to handle it as she hoped.

Calmly. Dispassionately. In control.

Anne’s chest suddenly ached, as if all the emotion she’d suppressed for decades gathered into a knot under her ribs.

I should call the number for Norma Wintz and tell her not to come. Which was a great idea, except she’d left her cell phone in the car. And if she went to her car to get it, she might not have the emotional courage to come back.

To say nothing of the fact that if she walked the two long blocks to where she was parked, there was a good chance she would miss Norma Wintz altogether, and the woman would probably think she was a crack pot.

Anne took another peek at her watch.

One twenty-two.

That’s impossible. It felt as if an hour had passed since she’d last looked at the time.

“Excuse me, are you Mrs. Sullivan?” A waiter, his eyes jade green against his tan skin, smiled at Anne. His name tag read ‘Taj’.

“Yes, I’m Anne Sullivan."

“There’s a call for you.” Taj held out a phone.

Anne pressed it against her head. “This is Anne Sullivan.”

Taj clasped his hands behind his back and smiled at her as if she was a small child on the first day of school.

“Hello, this is Norma Wintz calling,” a voice said in Anne’s ear. “I’m on my way but there was an accident and traffic is wretched. I got no answer on the number you gave me, but I wanted to let you know I wasn’t standing you up.”

“Oh, that’s no problem.” Anne nodded at Taj and repositioned the phone an inch higher on her ear. “I don’t have other plans for this afternoon.”

“Fine. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.” The phone went dead.

“Okay. Thank you!” Anne met the waiter’s eyes and wondered how Taj had known to bring it to her.

Norma Wintz must have described me to him. But what could she have said, since we’ve never met? Look for a woman who seems the sort to give up her first-born child for adoption?

Emelle Gamble was a writer at an early age, bursting with the requisite childhood stories of introspection. These evolved into bad teen poetry and worse short stories. She took her first stab at full length fiction in an adult education writing class when her kids were in bed. As M.L. Gamble, she published several romantic suspense novels with Harlequin. She contracted with Soul Mate Publishing for Secret Sister, published in the summer of 2013, and Dating Cary Grant, an April 2014 release.

Once and Forever, an anthology which includes the novella Duets, came out on November 1st. Molly Harper, a full length novel starring the characters from Duets 3 years later was released by Posh Publishing in January, 2014. Duets is now available as a standalone novella. Emelle lives in suburban Washington D.C. with her husband, ‘Phil-the-fist’, her hero of thirty years, and two orange cats, Lucy and Bella. These girls, like all good villains, have their reasons for misbehaving.

Her daughter, Olivia, and son, Allen, are happily launched on their own and contributing great things to society, their mother’s fondest wish.



Review Quotes:



Praise for SECRET SISTER…

“Along with being a very unique and captivating plot, SECRET SISTER offers a shocking turn of the paranormal kind… This is a story of friendship, family, and most of all, true love and what those things can mean. I cannot recommend SECRET SISTER strongly enough… “ Fresh Fiction, Fresh
Reviews



DUETS…

"I'll admit I grabbed this book for review more because Emelle Gamble had a story in there - I've loved her significant touch brought to family relationships in a previous book of hers that I've read, and I wanted to confirm if this sort of embroiled-relationships type of tale is really her niche or not. Turns out, it is!" Zee Monodee's Author's Corner reviews MOLLY HARPER…



"MOLLY HARPER ...is the first book I've read by this author, but it won't be my last! Ms. Gamble does a wonderful job of drawing these characters and making them just leap off the page." Long and Short Reviews



DATING CARY GRANT…

"Fantasy and reality blend together in this mesmerizing tale from Emelle Gamble…It's not your typical romance, making it a breath of fresh air in a market currently inundated with new adult contemporary romances (which I do love, but need a break once in a while!). I continue to be a fan of this author..." Andi's Book Reviews



Links:

Email: emellegamble@aol.com

Website: www.EmelleGamble.com

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Emelle.Gamble

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmelleGamble

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123746.Emelle_Gamble

Emelle Gamble BOOKS:

DATING CARY GRANT book of the month at Long & Short Reviews. eBook exclusively at Amazon.com http://amzn.to/1iiE8Y0

SECRET SISTER… RONE Award Honorable Mention for BEST CONTEMPORARY NOVEL of 2013 available in audio, paperback and eBook at Amazon http://amzn.to/17J2Bn6

DUETS, a prequel novella to MOLLY HARPER, now available at Amazon http://amzn.to/1cagyNa

MOLLY HARPER, available in paperback and eBook at Amazon http://amzn.to/MOJUXa

MOLLY HARPER and DUETS now available in one Paperback volume! http://amzn.to/1hW6YSj

NOTE: Both books are FREE on Amazon September 27 - October 1, 2014.

CONTEST:
Emelle will award a signed paperback of MOLLY HARPER with bonus novella DUETS included (US ONLY) to THREE randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour and a $20 Amazon gift card to TWO randomly drawn hosts.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Should A Reviewer Change A Review Because An Author Requests It?

I just read a post on Facebook where a book reviewer asked this question: Should a reviewer change a review upon an author's request?


Several people commented and here's the overwhelming consensus:


It's poor etiquette for an author to request a change in a review. The review is the reviewer's opinion. So unless there's an error in the review (i.e. the book's name is wrong, a link is incorrect), it is generally considered poor form to request a change. Hurtful as a poor review can be, many authors believe it is part of our job as an author to take the good with the bad.


Many years ago when I reviewed books for one particular review site (I don't even remember which one now), an author was very unhappy with the first review so I was asked to do a review also in the hopes that I would give the book a better review. Unfortunately, I came upon a couple stumbling blocks with the book that I had to comment upon, so my opinion wasn't appreciated by the author either.


Honestly, I hate to give a poor review so I look for the positive points of the story to highlight. As an author who has had my feelings hurt from less than stellar reviews, and at least one downright bitchy one that did not seem to be done in the light of constructive criticism, I really don't want to hurt anyone else.


Simultaneously, however, the reader is depending on me as the reviewer, to give my honest opinion (By the way, I was completely bored by The Amazing Spiderman 2 and couldn't wait for the show to end. However, I very much liked the Gwen and Aunt May characters.) so I have a duty to help them choose a book they will hopefully enjoy.


And you know, I've been curious about books that received a very negative review and I bought the book to see if I agreed. Sometimes I did, but not always. A negative review won't kill an author, even if it stings for awhile. When it comes to movies, I often disagree with the critic's opinion. Many of my favorite movies have 2 star ratings. I'll never understand how The Rocketeer rates a mere 2 stars.


What do you think?


Happy Saturday!
Ashley

Reviews, comments, and criticisms, and praise

This week's topic revolves around my short story "Brazen" published on "East End of the Web". Today, I focus on the many different comments and the diversity of them. It's almost funny and I think, teaches a lesson, one I've also learned working customer service at the day job. You can't please every one all the time. It's impossible. What one person loves and thinks is perfect, the next one absolutely hates, often for the same exact reasons. I wrote this story many many years ago. In fact, I don't even remember which year and I had forgotten all about it until I received a recent very favorable email about it that made my day. The comments range from "It sucked" to "unrealistic" to "Nice story. Enjoyed reading it" all the way to "I love it! I love it! I LOVE IT!!! I write stories like this. It hooked me from the very first sentence! Really great job!!!" Honestly, if memory serves, it was just a quick short story I wrote for my website when I was starting out, that I later posted on East End of the Web. I don't recall expecting it to be the next Great American Novel but just a cute, quick short story. It's good to see what readers think as I usually don't hear a lot of feedback from them. It makes me think I'll write more short stories to post there to see what kind of reaction I get. I've thought of that over the years, then opt out to actually sell the story to a royalty paying publisher. But it's also good to have free promo in many spots as my advertising budget right now frankly sucks. So after I finish my huge judging project and at least 2 sets of edits, I'll start writing a short story here and there for promo and post it again on East End of the Web or other popular writing sites. My younger daughter loves http://www.fanfiction.net/ and reads their stories all the time. That's probably another excellent place to post free short stories. If you're a reader, please tell me, if you ever found a writer by reading a free short story and if you followed them to their other books. If you're also a writer, please tell me if you ever post free short stories to give as samples of your stories and if you think you've gained readership?

Bad reviews - What do you think of them?

Face it, if you're an author, you've most likely had some less than stellar reviews. If you're a book reviewer, you've probably given some less than stellar reviews. As we keep telling each other and ourselves, book reviews are subjective. Thus, we shouldn't worry about a bad review...or two. Like it or not, less than stellar reviews can teach us valuable things when we keep an open mind. If reviews honestly critique the story, they can point out things that can help the author write the next story. They've helped me. This is not to say a reviewer should ever attack a book or an author - there's a huge difference. If you have a personal beef with an author keep it to yourself or at least keep it private between the two of you. Here's an example I pulled off Amazon of a less than helpful review, "I was gullible enough to follow an Amazon recommendation on this one; it turned out to be on of my biggest mistakes. I wish I could give less than a star. Its ridicules that these books get printed while books which are so much better barely make it to e form. Just save your money, effort and time. Just stay away." While this hurts, it also doesn't help. I'd really like to know WHY the reader doesn't like the stories, both as a reader and an author. Perhaps the reader doesn't like erotic romance. Perhaps he doesn't like menages. Perhaps he has a beef about e-books. Perhaps he really doesn't like the writing - but of all three authors involved (this was about an anthology comprised of three authors)? Here's an example of a reviewer that still doesn't like one of my books, but gives me helpful insightful into "why". I took this to heart when writing subsequent stories and I owe this reviewer my thanks (even if it hurts a little). ""Pirate's Booty" was my least favorite. The love scenes were hot, but the story felt forced to me and I think I just had a really cheesy porn movie playing in my head (complete with the chick in animal skin bikini) as I was reading parts of it. But maybe if that is your fantasy the story would work for you, it did not for me." (from the anthology "And Lady Makes Three" published by Ellora's Cave at www.ellorascave.com) Funny thing is, this book is my biggest seller out of all 40+ of my published books. Maybe it's because of my anthology partners' contributions. Anyway, it did give me a tip or two so I've toned down my subsequent stories and I've been getting better reviews. (However, not better sales, so I have to wonder what that's all about...) Just to prove that reviews are subjective, here's a good review of the same story "Pirate's Booty" in the "And Lady Makes Three" anthology. "Pirate's Booty by Ashley Ladd is like a treasure cookie; plain golden temptation on the outside and warm gooey decadence on the inside. At first, I was all prepared for another "rich, useless girl falls for bum" type story and was pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise. Melena is a self-sufficient dynamo of a heroine. Keir and Zarod struggle to accept learning new things about themselves as we learn what wonderful hero material they both really are. All in all, this is a satisfyingly decadent jaunt. Ms. Ladd has created a heroine any woman would be proud to identify with and heroes that turn out to be exactly what they should be. Her way with building sexual tension does not hurt a bit either. " So, which review should I believe? I'd say both of the second two. They're both valid opinions. They both state their reasons "why". The first, doesn't give us a clue. As a reader, do you go by reviews in your book buying decisions? Have you ever bought a book because a review was good...or bad? Honestly, when a book receives a really poor review, I'm more curious than ever to see why and to see if I agree with it. I've read where some authors are tempted to write a really bad review of their book and post it under a different name for promo purposes. I wouldn't do that. I don't hope for a bad review. However, with millions of readers (at least we hope), there are bound to be a million different opinions, good and bad. As I've learned working in customer service, there's no pleasing all of the people all of the time no matter how hard you try. It's impossible. You can only do your best, please yourself, and polish a book for obvious mistakes and then set it free like we do our human children. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Graphic Reading Challenge

Real quick, I'm going to post the five novels I will be reading and reviewing before the end of 2008 for a new review site I just found. I imagine I'll do more than five if allowed, but here's the first five. This is for the Graphic Reading Challenge at: http://gnchallenge.blogspot.com/search/label/challenge%20policies Rawsilk by Lisabet Sarai The Rock of Realm by Lea Schizas Wedding Jitters by Brynn Paulin Hello by Dakota Rebel Maid for Death by Amarinda Jones **Blogger friends - Please see my other new post just beneath this. I really shouldn't post twice in a day, but I found this right after I made my other post.