Winners of my Blogiversary Contest!

I have 3 winners to share with you all today!  First of all, the winner of the $20 Amazon gift card is....

amandadawk 

And the runners up who get their choice of books are:

petite

stacybuckeye

Congratulations to the winners! 

Mailbox Monday-Oct. 31

Mailbox Monday is a great meme that has us list the books that we receive.  Different bloggers now have the opportunity to host this meme for a month at a time. This month the host is Savvy Verse and Wit so head on over there to see what everyone else received or to play along!


I only received one book in my mailbox this week:

 The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

I haven't read anything by Umrigar yet, so I am looking forward to this one!  How about you...any surprises in your mailbox?

Audiobook Review: To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

Title:  To Be Sung Underwater
Author:  Tom McNeal
Narrator:  Susan Boyce
Unabridged Length:  15 hrs, 15 mn.

Here is a summary of the book from the Hachette website:

Judith Whitman always believed in the kind of love that "picks you up in Akron and sets you down in Rio." Long ago, she once experienced that love. Willy Blunt was a carpenter with a dry wit and a steadfast sense of honor. Marrying him seemed like a natural thing to promise. But Willy Blunt was not a person you could pick up in Nebraska and transport to Stanford. When Judith left home, she didn't look back.

Twenty years later, Judith's marriage is hazy with secrets. In her hand is what may be the phone number for the man who believed she meant it when she said she loved him. If she called, what would he say?

TO BE SUNG UNDERWATER is the epic love story of a woman trying to remember, and the man who could not even begin to forget.

My Review:
When this audiobook starts out, it seems that Judith is unhappy with the direction that her life has taken her.  She appears to have a beautiful family after marrying her college sweetheart and having a lovely daughter.  But after suspecting that her husband is having an affair she can't help but wonder if she passed up her one chance for true love long ago.

Although this story takes place in present day, Judith reflects back on her teenage years when she met young Willy Blunt.  We find out how her relationship with her parents helped to shape her into the person that she has become.  After her parents divorce, Judith seems to lose touch with her mother when it seems that living with her father would be in her best interests.

It is during the time that Judith is living with her father when paths cross with Willy.  They fall in love at such a young age and while Willy seems to already have a life for himself in a small town, Judith is thinking about college and where that life may take her.  She just isn't sure if she can live with herself if she doesn't move forward to a prospective future.

I don't want to give any more of this audiobook away, but I will tell you that Judith was not happy with the person that she has become.  It seemed to me that she even tried to reinvent herself, which was a part of the story that I just did not understand and found a bit unnecessary.  But Judith finds that she must confront her past and accept the decisions that she has made in order to move on with her life.

This audiobook was narrated by Susan Boyce, who I feel did not attribute much to the story itself.  As I was listening to the story I thought to myself several times that this may be a book that I would have enjoyed actually "reading" rather than listening to.  Overall I did enjoy this novel with themes of true love, secrets, and family obligations.

My Rating:  3/5

Disclosure:  This audiobook was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Teaser Tuesday-Oct. 25

Check out Teaser Tuesdays from Should Be Reading. TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

This week my teaser is from The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls:
Mom had read somewhere that mayonnaise was good for our hair, and the morning the photographer was coming to school, she slathered a few spoonfuls on mine.  She didn't realize you were supposed to wash out the mayonnaise, and in the picture that year I was peering out from under one stiff shingle of hair.

pg. 76

Winners of The Traitor's Wife by Kathleen Kent!

I'm very excited to share with you all the winners of the Traitor's Wife by Kathleen Kent!

First of all, the winner of both The Heretic's Daughter and The Traitor's Wife is.....

Leslie

And then I also have two more lucky winners that have won a copy of The Traitor's Wife:

Beachreader

traveler

Congratulation to all of the winners and thank you to all who stopped by to enter!  I will be emailing you shortly to get your mailing information to forward to the publisher. 

Blog Tour, Review, and Giveaway: Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

First of all I need to thank Trish once again from TLC Book Tours for inviting me to be a part of this tour.  Isn't the cover of this book beautiful?  I must admit to you that even though I hate Fall, I would love to be walking down this lane with the leaves crunching under my feet.  I'm even giving a copy of this book away at the end of this post.

Here is a summary of the novel from the Harper Collins website:
A recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son Scott teaches. Allegations of Scott's involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos. For Charles, Sylvie's biological son, it dredges up a ghost from the past who is suddenly painfully present. For his wife Joanna, it forces her to reevaluate everything she's hoped for in the golden Bates-McAllisters. And for Scott, it illuminates harsh truths about a world he has never truly felt himself a part of. 

But for all the Bates-McAllisters, the call exposes a tangled web of secrets that ties the family together: the mystery of the school hazing, the event that tore Charles and Scott apart the night of their high school awards ceremony, and the intended recipient of a certain bracelet. The quest to unravel the truth takes the family on individual journeys across state lines, into hospitals, through the Pennsylvania woods, and face-to-face with the long-dormant question: what if the life you always planned for and dreamed of isn't what you want after all?

My Review:
This story brings us into the lives of a privileged American family as they are struggling to try to hold onto the life that they know.  Sylvie was fortunate enough to inherit her grandfather's mansion early on in her marriage, but I don't think that she realized how this windfall would impact her family life.  Her grandfather worked hard building the family business and making a name for himself and was quite an asset to the local community.  When the private high school was about to shut down, he bailed them out, resulting in becoming the lead shareholder from the endeavor.


It seemed to me that the family's involvement with the private school, Swithin, was where many of the problems unfolded for this family.  Sylvie always said that if it weren't for her grandfather, Swithin would not even be here today.  She finds herself becoming troubled when she hears of how her grandfather treated the less privileged people in their community.  She has to come to terms with the fact that her grandfather was not the upstanding citizen that she always thought.

As Sylvie is dealing with the new revelations about her grandfather, she is also still mourning the loss of her husband.  It hasn't been that long since he passed away in such a quick and swift manner, and it seemed that they left so many things unspoken and unanswered.  Sylvie had suspected that he was having an affair but she really had no idea who he was seeing or even the extent of their relationship.

Sylvie's sons seemed to have suffered the most growing up under the McAllister name.  Scott was adopted by the Bates-McAllister's at a young age and their father seemed to show more love and understanding to him than to their older son Charles.  This created turmoil between the two brothers throughout their lives that they never seemed to be able to overcome.  All of their relationships are pushed to the boiling point during a high school celebration when Scott uncovers a secret that leaves their relationships torn and tattered.

After that high school blow out all of the family members just seem to be living life day to day, without plans of improving themselves or moving on in any way.  It was so sad to see this family stuck in a kind of limbo that wouldn't allow them to experience any happiness.  When Scott finds himself the center of an investigation at the Swithin private school, each of the family members start to evaluate their lives and the events that have happened since that long ago afternoon.  Confronting the past and their own demons will help each of them move on to being the people that they really want to be.

This was a good story, but there was something within the pages that I just didn't love.  It certainly isn't a feel good book, but that has not prevented me from enjoying stories in the past.  Maybe it was the fact that I have always believed that if you just give children whatever they want in life, you are helping them to fail.  This family obviously had everything handed to them on a silver platter, and their lives may have looked fine and dandy from the outside, but from the inside they were being ripped to shreds.   I only touched on a few of the relationship issues that were apparent in this novel, but even though I didn't love it, I still think that this novel would make a good book club discussion with themes of families, secrets, and revelations.

My Rating: 3/5

Disclosure:  This e-book was provided to me by the publisher through the Netgalley program in exchange for an honest review.

Now for the giveaway!
I will be giving away one trade paperback copy of this book to give away.

To enter this contest you must be at least 18 and live in the U.S. or Canada. No PO Boxes please.

For one entry leave me a comment including your email address below.

For two additional entries, blog about this contest or add the link to your sidebar.

Please include your email so I will have a way to contact you if you win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as myemail.address AT gmail DOT com or myemail.address [at] gmail [dot] com.

You will have until November 10th to enter and I will draw for a winner on or after November 11th.

Good luck Everyone!

**This giveaway is closed.**

My Blogiversary Giveaway!

I'm so happy to share with everyone that this week marks three years that I have been blogging and sharing my thoughts about all of the books that I read.  When I think back to that first post so long ago, I must admit that I really didn't know what was in store for me.  I can tell you that everyone in the blogging community has been amazing!  I am thankful to all of you-readers, publishers, fellow bloggers, authors, and publicists.  Blogs would mean nothing without any of you! 

I know that since I started my new job in March I haven't had the opportunity to visit many of your blogs as often as I would like.  Rest assured that I do make it over there eventually, even if it is a delayed arrival!   I have been trying to do a little housekeeping over here at Jo-Jo Loves to Read!!!  I'm working on cleaning up my blogroll by deleting some links that just aren't there any longer, and updating the actual link address for those of you that changed where your blog is actually located.  I actually even stopped following a few blogs that didn't have any activity within the last year.  Harsh, I know, but changes need to be made!

I'm planning on starting a writing workshop this week to hopefully help me compile my thoughts in a more organized manner.  Sometimes I read what I posted at a later date and say to myself "What were you thinking!"  Maybe I will even share with all of you the progress that I make with this workshop.

In celebration of the occasion today I think it is only appropriate to have a GIVEAWAY!  Fun, fun, fun!

 The 1st place winner will win a $20 gift card from Amazon!




The 2nd and 3rd place winners will have their choice of one of the following gently read ARC's from my shelf:

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

Guernica by Dave Boling

The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy

The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard

The Life O'Reilly by Brian Cohen








Well I think this is a pretty good assortment of books for the giveaway.  So here is how you can enter:
To enter this contest you must be at least 18 and live in the U.S. or Canada.

For one entry leave me a comment including your email address below.

For two additional entries, blog about this contest or add the link to your sidebar.

Please include your email so I will have a way to contact you if you win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as myemail.address AT gmail DOT com or myemail.address [at] gmail [dot] com.

You will have until October 27th to enter and I will draw for winners on or after October 28th.  I'm making this a short giveaway so whoever wins the Amazon gift card can take advantage of the specials that are offered through Harper this month.  You can find out more about that here.

Good luck everyone!