Plastic Hearts by Lisa De Jong @LisaDeJongBooks


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ENTER TO WIN A COPY HERE

When the book opens we meet Alexandra Riley who is in her first year at NYU with her sights to the future on pediatric medicine. From the beginning the picture of Alexandra and her family is painted as bold as a Do Not Enter sign! She was VERY sheltered and comes from a family that is built on wealth. Everything her parents and sister have lived for is wealth and status. That was Alexandra too. When she goes away she leaves her boyfriend behind and gets settled into college life. I think he was her best friend, but they were both expected to become a couple. While she is going through the start of her transformation she takes one art class. She has always liked painting and allows herself this one enjoyable class. In the class she meets Dane Wright. He is the one that turns her planets upside down and causes her extreme cosmic blowout!

This is the first part in the Plastic Hearts Series (secretly hoping to have 3 books or more) The story follows Alexandra, who quickly changes her life path and transforms to Alex.  This is the first novel for Lisa. I found that reader, blogger and reviewer makes a wonderful author. Aside from the fact that I read a lot of what this author does, we agree on a lot of it too. The book had a really good balance of angst and drama. The best part for me was the actual situations presented in the book. They were totally believable. I have read a lot of books that were good but the situations presented were just too “out there”. The love of art shared between Alex and Dane was believable. The way Alexandra grew up and the raw emotional fear she felt about explaining Dane.

The story-lines, the characters, and especially the background were spot on. As a New Yorker I love to read about anything East Coast that is accurate. New York and Connecticut have very many exclusive areas where The Riley type of family dwells. So when Alex is thinking about what her future holds and what her sister Gwenn’s future will be, it is the most real part. I know that Gwenn’s fiance and her upcoming wedding are getting Alex to see the light. She wonders but never asks Gwenn if she is in love. That is basically all I will say about the plot. I reads tons of reviews and I really don’t like when there is an outline, so I am not doing that.   I will just say that these families exist! Think of Donald Trump for a minute. Maybe Donald Junior, for instance, comes home with a girl who does ear piercings at a kiosk by Bryant Park. How do you think Mr Trump would react? Bingo!!  This is my girl and she works at a pizza place and is putting herself through school to become an artist. Dad can we take her to Regis Philbin’s house for lunch?  I could go on but I think I made my point.

Grab it up or enter to win a copy. You know I am doing a BIG giveaway!  Rave reviews and dripping with anticipation for book 2. On another note the editing was great. I never ever pick if I see an indie author who has a typos, this was perfect.

blog 5star

On another note, the cover girl is so Alexandra Riley to me, but the guy needs more edge. Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content and language. (this was so pg to me I didn’t need a warning, but I do love when I see those, I hurry and read them faster.

A quote:

I’d completed thirty-seven paintings over the last several months. If I placed them in order of when I painted them, they showed my rise, fall and eventual rebirth. -Alex


The Author and Links

Reviews


I follow a lot of blogs and subscribe to many via email. I was reading up on what I missed and I was just shocked that I reads a review that was in poor taste. If you feel the need to completely slam an ARC, that is SO not cool. If I read something that is awful (lucky for me I don’t have that a lot) it is better to just not post. Maybe you are not in your preferred genre or just not up for that type of book when you get it. Stop reading and remove the thought that would compel you to write something that is hurtful.

 

Think before you write! Maybe consider how the law of averages work and how many 5 star reviews you need to combat a bad review. Just saying, be KIND and read onkindle 5145393829_6ddb514f58_b

Deadly Deception (Book 1 in Deadly series) by Andrea Johnson Beck @AndreaJBeck @cbl_blog


cautious cover reveal



Synopsis from this romantic suspense novel:


Dr. Anne Jamison, brilliant neuropsychiatrist , living the concrete jungle life in Minneapolis with her fiancé, prominent attorney, Adam Whitney. The mysterious death of Carter Leeds, her former boyfriend, haunts her to this day. After three years of unanswered questions, a secretive note finds its way to Anne, revealing the possibility that Carter may in fact be alive, and that her very own fiancé may have had a hand in his attempted demise.

Who really is Adam Whitney? Can Anne trust the man she pledged forever with? As deadly secrets begin to unravel, so does her trust. A dark, twisted game of cat and mouse ensues, who will run out of lives and who will walk away, to only be deceived, once again.

***Excerpt Chapter 1***

Anne stretched her neck muscles as they tightened at just the thought of Victoria. Her attempts to shake the green-eyed monster were ineffective, so she turned her attention to the mystery envelope waving its secretive arms, enticing her to open it. She picked it up and walked over to her mission-style desk to locate an envelope opener. Anne took the silver blade and ran it through the glued seal. The contents trickled out and onto her desk. Colored photographs fanned out in front of her and a white note with red hue writing stared at her.

For My Anneliese

“No!”

She gasped, feeling her hands begin to numb. Her veins were flooded with fresh fretful blood that burned her chest and pulsated into her ears as the thumping of her heart pounded deep within her. The one person in the entire universe who ever called her by her given birth name was Carter. The room was losing all focus and was quickly becoming dim. But then Carter’s face became clearer, like a luminous apparition pulling her subconscious in deeper.



Author Info:

I think I came out of the womb writing. I published my first poem when I was in elementary school and my first short story was not too far after that. When I had my son, I wrote for various publications about his birth, what we went through as a family and when he was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum I shared his story with others who were going through the same scary process as we had.

 

Before my thirtieth birthday, I vowed to write and complete a full length book, which I did. I finished two weeks before my birthday. After a couple of frustrating contract negotiations, I decided to take a time out. Earlier this year, I made the decision to get my baby (Deadly Deception) published. With another frustrating contract deal down the drain, I decided that self-publication was my destiny.

Between homeschool awesomeness, domestic goddess duties, city upheaval, extra-curricular craziness, it has been a challenge to tidy the book up and slap a red bow on it. With the help of some amazing editors it’s ready with a red bow on top. 

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