Bookin' it

Guess who was sitting three seats down from me in church today?

You can't guess. It was The Mormon Bachelorette. Her sister, who is a friend of mine, is in my ward and I had no idea they were sisters! Isn't that hilarious given my stalkerish obsession? How lucky for Ashley that I found her! (Actually, this is one of those times where I had a prayer that I didn't even know I had and then Heavenly Father answered it by delivering Ashley right to me and now I have to laugh at how He works sometimes. But this little bit of good fortune is going to make writing my next book much, MUCH easier. More on that another time.) Anyway, if you're not following this season yet, you should. She's cool.

Moving on: Thanks to everyone who calmed me in my little freak out last week. I'm all the way up to #40 and I think it will climb steadily. Here's a fact: my publisher is pretty dang awesome and they want all of their books to succeed and they have faith in me, and readers seem to like my stuff, and my husband has faith in me, so now I will have faith in me.

And here's another fact: this moment of Zen is brought to you by the fact that I was cutting carbs for two weeks and now I'm allowed to have them again and CHOCOLATE MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. That is why I am thankful for chocolate.

That's probably why I got a kick out of my friend Kristine's new book so much. WARNING: Book reviews ahead. I've read a couple of good things lately that you might like so I will give you my brand new, patent-pending, definitive two sentence statement on why you should buy these books:

First up, I mentioned chocolate and a book and these are two very good things together. Stealing Mercy by Kristy Tate (who happens to be my critique partner) is a fun historical romance/mystery set in Seattle when it was still frontierish. There are lots of pies, a brothel, a ninja, and PIES. Oh, and it's only $2.99 on Kindle right now! Whee!

My friend Sarah and I ditched many a party in college to check out Regency novels at the Provo City library when we'd had enough of real life boys (totally true--we were brats), and Sarah (who is a different Sarah but probably also ditched parties for Regency romance novels) Eden's Seeking Persephone is a REALLY STINKING FUN book. She's a great writer and this is a perfect Friday night read.

Then, of course, there's a slight nip in the air in some places that speaks of  . . . FALL. And Josi Kilpack's book, Pumpkin Roll, is her latest, spookiest, and best installment in her Sadie Hoffmiller culinary mystery series. Also, there's a recipe for a pumpkin roll that is worth the price of admission by itself.

And I've been reading lots and lots of contemporary young adult novels lately, so let me recommend two that I got wind of via the super awesome Luisa and now I owe her big time for the fun reads: Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson. They have a kind of I Capture the Castle vibe about them except they're set in this cool art deco hotel in the right now present.

Also so fun: The Ruby Oliver books by E. Lockhart. Ooh, and for pure escapism: The Heist Society books by Ally Carter.

Happy reading, everyone!

Oooooh, and stay tuned for Tuesday when it's my Book Birthday and many fun things begin to happen!