Today’s teaser is from The Nazi Hunter by Alan Elsner.

Synopsis:

Mark Cain – deputy director of the Office of Special Investigations – tracks down and brings to jusice ex-Nazis who have quietly slipped into the country since World War II.  But on a rainy November afternoon, it’s a woman wearing a red brooch who slips past security and into Cain’s office.  “I am looking for the Nazi hunter,” she says.  “I have documents – important documents.”  She promises to show him the documents when they next meet, but she never returns.  At first, Cain dismisses her as just another crackpot, but when the Washington Post reports that a woman wearing a red brooch has been brutally murdered, he suspects he may be on to something big.  He must find those documents!

Meanwhile, the Republicans have taken control of Congress, and the newly elected Speaker of the House can’t wait to cut big government down to size.  The thread of budget hearings hangs over Cain’s head, but he knows that the Office of Special Investigations is immune from elimination, or is it?

As Cain slides further into a tangeled web of secrets and murder, he realizes that he has entered a race for his life – one that will draw him from the vicious halls of Washington politics, through the dark heart of Europe’s past, and into the savage lair of America’s right-wing militias.

Teaser:

from page 124

“We’ll be cutting government deaparments all across the board, ” Doneghan said, his voice rising.  “Nobody’s exempt.  You boys thing you’re above everyone else? The era of big government is over for everyone, mister, and that includes you.”

It was like watching a prizefight, two heavyweights beating each other senseless.  But I was also proud of Eric.  He wasn’t backing down an inch.

“We’re not ‘big government’ as you put it.  Our department is small, our budget is tiny, and we can account for every center. If you come after us, you’ll be making a big mistake.”

Today’s book comes to us from Janet Evanovich and Dorian Kelly and is titled Love in a Nutshell.  The website touts it as a romantic suspense…well, ok there is some suspense but not that much IMHO!

Synopsis:

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

Teaser:

This week’s teaser comes from page 68 and just highlights the humor that these authors always manage to include in the books:

“Let me get this straight,” Matt said.  “I hired someone who hates beer to work in a microbrewery?”

“It looks that way.”

“I think I need a more detailed application form.”

I was poking around Goodreads and upcoming events and saw that author Vannetta Chapman would be in my area this Saturday signing copies of her newest book A Perfect Square.  This is book two to follow Falling to Pieces.  This book series is set in Amish country and a quilt shop that a young woman inherits from her aunt.  I’ve read Amish stories before but I think this is the first series that has included a murder.  No wait, I take that back. There is also a fun series by Tamar Myers that involves the Pennsylvania-Dutch and involves cooking (yum!)

Anyway, the teaser for today is from Falling to Pieces.

Synopsis:

When two women—one Amish, one English—each with different motives, join forces to organize a successful on-line quilt auction, neither expects nor wants a friendship. As different as night and day, Deborah and Callie are uneasy partners who simply want to make the best of a temporary situation. But a murder, a surprising prime suspect, a stubborn detective, and the town’s reaction throw the two women together, and they form an unlikely alliance to solve a mystery and catch a killer.

Teaser:

from page 132:

“Of course if Harper is detained on a more permanent basis, Mrs. Yoder would be able to return during regular visiting hours and see her.”

“That’s not the outcome we’re working toward, Officer.”

On a website I belong to (booktrib.com) they were asking for 10 volunteers for a challenge.  The challenge is for 2 weeks to buy only items made or produced in the USA.  Sounds easy right?  Wrong!  Looking at the items on my counter to make a salad last night, only the spinach was grown in the USA.  The rest was imported from Mexico.  This could hamper our eating once I start the challenge.

This was brought on by a book called Buying America Back: A Real-Deal blueprint for Restroing American Prosperity by author Alan Uke.  Alan is a San Diego businessman, entrepreneur and community leader and has provided hundreds of jobs and revenues fo rthe San Diego area for over 40 years.  He is also the architect of the federal Automobile Smog Index. (did you even know there was such a thing?!)

 This is not a long book at all.  The actual book is 81 pages and then the rest of the book is references and other supporting documentation.

This particular sentence stood out to me on page 16:

It is interesting to note that in 1968 there were sixty-two  lobbyists in Washington.  Lobbyists are usually hired  by business and special interest groups.  Today, there are 34,000.

Perhaps that is what is wrong with our country and the economic problems we face.  Too many fingers in the pot and our politicians doing what they lobbyists want and not what the American people want or need!

I also liked this bit of information on page 6:

When we put labels on products to encourage purchases which are beneficial to the United States, we can begin to change our buying habits.  If each person shifted just 1% ($1 per day) of their spending, we would see instant change.  By each person spending just one dollar more per day on products manufactured in America, we would shed 100 billion dollars from the trade deficit.  If each billion dollar shift in the trade deficit translates to 13,000 jobs, this would create 1.3 million jobs in America.  More than the stimulus package produced – with just one dollar per person per day!

If this is something you are interested in learning more or taking a pledge or signing a petition, please visit the website.

I’m all for making a change to help my country, how about you?

I had good intentions this year to post at least twice a week….well that worked for the first few weeks of the year and then I don’t know what happened.  Actually I can’t believe it is February already, where did January go? 

So my teaser that I should have posted on Tuesday made it to Thursday, but it is still a day that begins with the letter T! 

Today’s teaser is a new series by author Diane Kelly called Death, Taxes and a French Manicure.  The main character is Tara Holloway, an IRS special agent (in Dallas!) out taking down those tax evaders, like Capone.  She is in Texas and grew up in East Texas (Nacogdoches to be specific) and is a take charge woman that can shoot her way out of a situation if necessary.  But heaven forbid it should mess up her manicure!

This book is a romantic mystery with a LOT of witty dialogue.  Heck the first sentence of the book had me laughing and I knew I was in for a treat.  If you are looking for a new series, definitely check this one out.  The second book in the series Death, Taxes and a Skinny No-Whip Latte is due out March 1st and the 3rd book, Death, Taxes and Extra-Hold Hairspray will be out in July.  I cannot wait!  Oh and I just saw on her website that she will be signing copies of that second book on March 10th in Arlington, I’m planning to be there!

So I’m going to offer 2 teasers – the first is the first sentence in the book.  The other will chosen at random.

Chapter One – Some People Just need shooting

When I was nine, I formed a Silly Putty pecker for my Ken doll knowing he’d have no chance of fulfilling Barbie’s needs given the permanent state of erectile dysfunction with which the toy designers of Mattel had cursed him.

from page 61:

Her eyes moved from my face to the pink Cadillac visible through the glass front of the clinic.  “What is it this time?  Makeover gone horribly awry?”

Today I’m going to give you two teasers….If you know me, you know I love Cozy mysteries.  They are light and usually a quick read for me.  One of my favorite authors is Elaine Viets who writes two different series.  The one I’m teasing you with today is from the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series.  The latest book is Death on a Platter.

This is from page 131:

She was almost inside her flat when one of the names hit her: Our Lady of the Sheets?  What kind of religious order was that? Was it a charity?  An order of sisters?

The second teaser is from a new series, the Cookie Cutter Shop Mysteries, by Virginia Lowell.  The second book in the series is A Cookie Before Dying.

This is from page 99:

While Spunky paced between the door and the window, Olivia closed her eyes.  She had done her duty, which ought to help her relax and fall asleep.  She envisioned wading into a chocolate lake dotted with pink and yellow sugar sprinkles.

I’ll be posting a review for this book along with a giveaway, it was a really good book!

Light under the House by Aaron and Donna Dawson

“Sarai Ravensbrook has never known power. She has never been in control of anything in her world. She has lived in the shadow of her step father and uncle’s abuses to both her mind and body. All she has ever wanted was to have what was hers, to control her own destiny. But when a beautiful and mysterious woman comes into her life, Sarai is guided down a strange path….a path that will lead her to a queen from the ancient past and to a destiny that is finally her own….or is it?”

Sarai Ravensbrook, the sly John Quince, the wise Dr. Levi and Tanis. All are characters involved with the Levi family and the secret lying just beneath their house that could potentially ruin them. A secret that an ancient evil will stop at nothing to uncover. Light Under the House by Aaron L. and Donna Dawson, chronicles the lives of the Levi family for a generation, taking readers on an exciting and thought-provoking journey.

This page-turning story is set in the late 1960s during a period of cultural rebellion, with a flashback to Biblical times, as well as a flash-forward to the 1980s and the present (2005). The events of this allegoric novel are interwoven within several themes that create cohesion for the story. Messages of courage, forgiveness, faith, the power of consequence, and the hope of redemption are all found within the pages of Light Under the House

Teaser:

Trying to take her mind off of her present situation, she pawed through the bag and grasped hold of the small leather wallet her mother had given her for her thirteenth birthday.  She pulled it close to her chest  and let a new batch of tears fill her eyes.

Today’s book is Real Vampires Hate their Thighs by Gerry Bartlett (who happens to live in the Lone Star state with me!)

This book is #5 in a series and I will admit I haven’t read books 1-4 but I have a feeling it is ok I just miss out on some of the back story between the main characters.

Synopsis:

Today’s teaser comes from page 172:

“You’ve been an excellent client, Glory. Despite a few glitches, your weight loss has been truly remarkable.  I should have asked you to do a video diary for me.”

Wow, I cannot believe it has been 2 weeks since I posted anything.  Bad me!  I have been reading but just haven’t felt like writing.  Have you ever had those days weeks?

Today’s Teaser book is one that I am reading for my bookclub.  It is Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgens

From the back of the book: 

So when journalist Chastity O’Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it’s time to start working on some of those feminine wiles.  Two tiny problems: #1 – she’s five feet eleven inches of rock-solid girl power, and #2 – she’s cursed with four alpha male older brothers.

While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor and things start to look up.  Now there’s only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she’s never quite gotten over – although he seems to have gotten over her just fine.

Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks. But even with the in-your-face competition, the irresistible Trevor just can’t seem to see Chastity as anything more than just one of the guys….

Today’s teaser comes from page 282:

“Could you tell?  That he was, you know….gay?”

I haven’t gotten to this page yet but now I’m curious as to who they are referring to in the cast of characters.  I don’t think it is a major character though.

Happy Reading and I have a book review and interview with the author coming up very soon!

Not sure where Monday went but it is Tuesday again and time for a teaser from the book I’m currently reading:  Bossypants by Tina Fey. 

From the dust jacket:

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update”, before “Sarah Palin”, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream:  a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle school gym teacher.  She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.  At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told.  From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

Now for the teaser part:

Page 161

Photoshop itself is not evil.  Just like Italian salad dressing is not inherently evil, until you rub it all over a desperate young actress and stick her on the cover of Maxim, pretending to pull her panties down.

Comments:

I just started the book this morning on my train commute to work and while I was reading it was a VERY fast read and it feels like I’m having a conversation with the Tina Fey we see on TV or in the movies.  If you like Tina, check this book out, so far it is pretty funny!