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My Book and My Coffee

Title: The Elite
Author: Kiera Cass
Dystopian, Romance, Young Adult
Form: Paperback

Book Description: The Elite

Photo from KieraCass.com

The Elite by Kiera Cass
Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle edition

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, she is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

The Elite ~ Book Review

*Spoiler alert*

Book Two of The Selection Novel, The Elite, is like a messy patch. Lots of realizations and these warranted different emotions. All in all, a really good read. Very imaginative. – Ara of My Book and My Coffee

The Elite is Book 2 of The Selection Series. You can read my review of the first book here – The Selection Book Review. For me, Book Two is soooo much different from the first one. I’m just saying that as a reader, and since I was careful not to read reviews about The Elite, I was kind of hoping that I’ll read more about Prince Maxon’s sweetness overload, that America will be able to actually say out loud who she really wants to be with, and that everything will be alright in that department. But oh no, oh no. Oh. No. 

I found myself really annoyed at America’s character more than a few times while reading the book. But that is because of the indecisiveness. I know the whole situation is out of the ordinary and given her beliefs, it mustn’t be easy. And yes, choosing who she wants to be with for the rest of her life is probably challenging because of the options she has. But you know, she wants to be treated fairly but she is not ‘playing’ that way at all. For me, she needs to decide. I know, again, it’s not that easy and it may not be simple but a decision has to be made in these circumstances. And since I’m Team Maxon all the way, she needs to end things with Aspen already. If she wants to choose Aspen, she should just let Maxon be happy with someone who will actually love him. 

This book showed a little more about who Maxon really is. He is, in fact, just human. With flaws and all that. But even with these flaws, he’s still wonderful. And I’m not saying this because I found his character to be really ‘dreamy’ when I read the first book. To me, he is still the one for America. Like all relationships, communication is key. I mean, they kind of have a relationship already, and they can communicate if they want. They just need to always remember that they can work things out.

Anyhow, I’m glad that Maxon still want him after what happened. America’s bravery, although ill-timed, should count for something. 

“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” That’s what the ending felt like to me. There’s hope! And I’m very much excited to see what will happen next. I can only imagine that Book 3 will be more interesting than ever. Can’t wait to read it!



4.5 stars


Thank you for reading!
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There's a new book in town - take a look!

Passion, Poison, and Puppy Dogs

Book Spotlight: Passion, Poison, & Puppy Dogs


Passion, Poison, & Puppy Dogs by Sally S. Smith & Jean Steffens

When Lizzie Jones, pet sitter extraordinaire, is asked to watch over her best friend's two spoiled dogs at the posh gated community of Craggy Hill Estates, the last things she expects is to wind up in the middle of a homicide. But that's exactly what happens when she finds her best friend's cheating husband and Danger Cove’s celebrity bodybuilder champ, Mr. Jupiter, floating facedown in his hot tub. To make matters worse, the police aren’t looking any further than the wife for a suspect—isn’t it always the wife? Well, not in this case—at least Lizzie refuses to believe it.

Between dealing with Craggy Hill's hot security guard, Tino Morales—who also just happens to be the man who broke Lizzie’s heart in high school, caring for her grieving friend, and watching three rambunctious dogs, Lizzie has her hands full. So she recruits her famous granddad, retired network field correspondent, Jimmy John Jones, to help her put two and two together to find the real killer. Was Mr. Jupiter murdered by one of his women on the side? A jealous, disgruntled employee? Or someone with a bitter and deep-seated hatred of the superstar? It's up to Lizzie, Jimmy John, and Lizzie's own pug, Vader, to crack the case before the killer claims another victim...this one much closer to Lizzie’s own heart!
About the Authors:


The international best-selling writing team of Sally J. Smith (right brain) and Jean Steffens (left brain) make up equal halves of one totally functional writer’s mind. Creative and intuitive and organized and systematic? What could be better than that?The two desert dwellers work together side-by-side, literally finishing each other’s sentences, putting together their novels faster and more efficiently than they ever could individually. 

When their heads aren’t together over a manuscript, you’ll find them with their families, at a movie, the yoga studio, the mall, or out-to-lunch—in the food sense, not the spaced-out sense, well…most of the time. Their current series include Jordan Welsh & Eddie Marino Novels, Mystic Isle Mysteries, Danger Cove Pet Sitter Mysteries, and coming soon, Aloha Lagoon Gabby LeClair Mysteries, and Digby Sloan Mysteries.
Connect with Jean and Sally: Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Oh.. wait. Did I forget to mention? There's an awesomesauce giveaway here: 


$25 Amazon Gift Card
Valid tour wide (US & Intl)


a Rafflecopter giveaway


AND


The Passion, Poison & Puppy Dogs Give-Away: A Digital or print copy of the book, a coffee mug of adorable Vader, and a bib apron with our celebrity pug.

Go to Smith and Steffens, International Best-Selling Authors FB Page by Saturday May 12th. Comment under Vader's picture to enter and win a bib apron and coffee mug starring Vader, our celebrity pug, & your choice of a digital or paper copy of the book.



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Lovely book cover! Teresa Richards is on tour to support her new novel, Emerald Bound. As part of the tour, the author is also giving away a $20 Amazon GC. Check out the deets >> 




Emerald Bound by Teresa Richards
Amazon Kindle | Paperback

A princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses. This is the sliver that survives of a story more nightmare than fairytale...

Maggie Rhodes, high school junior and semi-reformed stalker, learns the tale’s true roots after a spying attempt goes awry and her best friend Kate ends up as the victim of an ancient curse. At the center of the curse lies an enchanted emerald that has been residing quietly in a museum for the past fifty years. Admirers of the gem have no idea that it feeds on life. Or that it’s found its next victim in Kate. 

Enter Lindy, a school acquaintance who knows more than she’s letting on, and Garon, a handsome stranger claiming he knows how to help, and Maggie is left wondering who to trust and how to save her best friend before it’s too late.

If only Maggie knew her connection to the fairy tale was rooted far deeper than an endangered best friend. 

About the Author:


Teresa Richards writes YA, but loves anything that can be given a unique twist. Her zombie stories 'Are You My Mombie?' and 'The Zombie Code' can be found in Z Tales: Stories from the Zombieverse by The Fairfield Scribes. 

When Teresa’s not writing, she can be found either chasing after one of her five kids, or hiding someplace in the house with a treat her children overlooked. Emerald Bound is her debut novel. 

Connect with Teresa: Website | Twitter | Facebook


.... Here's the giveaway ~ Enter now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Monday LOVE! 

I'm so happy to be back with everything - reading, reviewing, posting spotlights, and of course, them giveaways! Enter this giveaway for a chance to win a Kindle or paperback copy - (US Only) - of The Commons: Book 1: The Journeyman by Michael Alan Peck.


The Commons: Book 1: The Journeyman by Michael Alan Peck
Kindle | Paperback


“Paul Reid died in the snow at seventeen. The day of his death, he told a lie—and for the rest of his life, he wondered if that was what killed him.”

And so begins the battle for the afterlife, known as The Commons. It’s been taken over by a corporate raider who uses the energy of its souls to maintain his brutal control. The result is an imaginary landscape of a broken America—stuck in time and overrun by the heroes, monsters, dreams, and nightmares of the imprisoned dead.

Three people board a bus to nowhere: a New York street kid, an Iraq War veteran, and her five-year-old special-needs son. After a horrific accident, they are the last, best hope for The Commons to free itself. Along for the ride are a shotgun-toting goth girl, a six-foot-six mummy, a mute Shaolin monk with anger-management issues, and the only guide left to lead them.

Three Journeys: separate but joined. One mission: to save forever.

But first they have to save themselves.


About the Author:


Michael Alan Peck tells tales big and small. Life's magical, but it isn't always enough for a good story. So he makes up the rest.

He’s made his living writing about TV, its celebrities, and its past. He’s also put food on the table reviewing restaurants and writing about travel.

He has a godawful memory, so he focuses on the written word. He likes to think that over time, he’s gotten better at it—the writing, not the remembering. He forgets important dates. He’s pretty good with movie lines. But after several years, he tends to tweak them. He prefers his versions over the real ones.
Funny goes a long way with him. Probably further than it should.

He grew up outside Philadelphia and has lived in New York, L.A., and San Francisco. His current home base is Chicago.

Connect with Michael: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

... Enter the Giveaway here:


1 lucky winner
Kindle or Paperback
U.S. only
Ends on October 22, 2015, 11:59 pm EST
Winner will be chosen on October 23, 2015


a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Really excited to be a part of this tour. Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens are on tour to support their cozy mystery novel, Mystic Mayhem. If you know me at all as a blogger, I love love love cozy mysteries so I'm more than happy to be a part of this. :) I was going to post it this morning but I was really not feeling well. Better late than never. :D Check out their novel and the giveaway below >>


Mystic Mayhem Tour

Mystic Mayhem by Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens
Amazon Kindle | Paperback

Melanie Hamilton is not your average artist. She brings home the bacon by inking tattoos at New Orleans's Mansion at Mystic Isle, a resort in the middle of the bayou that caters to fans of the peculiar and paranormal, but her true passion comes alive when she volunteers restoring Katrina-ravaged landmarks. Between her day job, her restoration work, and selling her paintings in Jackson Square, Mel's life is more hectic than Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday. But when a guest of the resort, a millionaire's widow, is poisoned, and Melanie's close friend is arrested for the murder, things go from hectic to downright dangerous.  

Mel joins forces with the resort's delish manager, Jack Stockton, to prove her friend's innocence. Soon they find themselves dealing with séances, secret passages, the ghost of the millionaire himself, gators, swamp rats, and a sinister killer who proves that not everything is what it seems in the Louisiana bayou. 

Come on along, and get your creep on. 

About the Author: 


Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens, are partners in crime—crime writing, that is. They live in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona, awesome for eight months out of the year, an inferno the other four. They write bloody murder, flirty romance, and wicked humor all in one package. 

Connect with Sally and Jean: Website | Facebook | Twitter

The authors are giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Enter now! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Title: Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues
Author: Trisha Ashley
Contemporary Romance, Chick Lit
Form: Paperback

Book Description: Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues


Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues Book Review

Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues by Trisha Ashley


When Tansy Poole inherits a run-down shoe shop tucked away in the village of Sticklepond, ‘Cinderella’s Slippers’ is born – providing the footwear to make any fairytale wedding come true…

Carrying everything a bride would want to walk down the aisle in, Tansy’s shop soon expands to carry shoe-themed wedding favours, bridesmaid gifts and even delicious chocolate shoes. It’s the dream destination for any shoe-lover!

If only everything in her personal life could be as heavenly – but with a fiancé trying to make her fit into a size 8 wedding dress, not to mention the recent discovery of disturbing family revelations, Tansy takes refuge in the shop’s success.

But one man isn’t thrilled by the stream of customers hot-footing it to Cinderella’s Slippers… Actor Ivo Hawksley, resident of the cottage next to the shop, is troubled by a dark secret in his past and has come to Sticklepond to nurse his own broken heart.

However, Ivo realises that he and Tansy have a link in their past and soon, they both find out how secrets shared can make a very strong bond indeed…

Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues ~ Book Review


Entertaining. Lovely. Heart-warming, indeed. – Ara of My Book and My Coffee

This book talks about Tansy Poole, a thirty-something children’s books author living with her fiancé (for almost 6 years). She lives in London but her heart is really in Sticklepond, a village in West Lancashire. When she inherited an old shoe shop owned by her Aunt Nancy in Sticklepond, everything seemed to have fallen in the right place – give or take a step. :D

I loved reading this book. It has a lot of details but I appreciated every single thing. It may seem slow because of all those details but I love it anyway. I love the humor, romance, mystery and many more. Also the food. OMG. I feel like I gained a few pounds just by reading this novel. :D :D :D I also appreciate the exclusive recipes at the end of the book. 

I like Tansy – she has a good heart and the Cinderella tale plot (yes, two wicked stepsisters) was definitely something you’ll need to read about. Especially Rae, one of the stepsisters. She’s one nasty character. Actually, Marcia, the other stepsister, is no better. Justin, Tansy’s fiancé, is one of those characters that you won’t really care about. It’s like “You did that and you expect this?” LOL. Maybe the character was written this way but I can already tell (because of the very long engagement) that he is not the one for Tansy. That someone out there will be better. When and who are two important questions. Ivo Hawksley, the actor and owner of the cottage next to the shoe shop, is something you’ll have to get to know more though. Coz I bet you’ll like him once you get to know this character. 

Overall, I love it. If you love chick lit and contemporary romance novels then I definitely recommend reading this book. It’s one world you’d want to be a part of. You know how it is for us readers. :)

4.5 stars

Thank you for reading!

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Hello! Hallo! Aloha!

Welcome to My Book and My Coffee blog. I'm ARA, the owner of this blog.
I'm a book blogger and reviewer.

Learn more here: About Ara

I am NOT accepting review requests at the moment. I still have too many books in my queue. Sorry. ~ Check out my Review Policy here.

For advertising inquiries, please email me at ara@mybookandmycoffee.com.

Thank you! Enjoy the blog! ;)

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