Today's Featured Books

Congratulations to Catherine Shields and Vine Leaves Press on the release of The Shape of Normal: A Memoir of Motherhood, Disability and Embracing a Different Kind of Perfect. 
 
★★★★★ "Brave and heartbreaking...will resonate with all parents." ~Jen Pastiloff, author of On Being Human

The Shape of Normal

As a young suburban mother in the early 1980s, Cathy had a loving husband, a sweet toddler, and a vision of life laid out before her. Pregnant for the second time, with twins, she imagined creating the warm, affectionate home she’d craved as a child. Her family would flourish, and she would be the calm, unflappable mother at its center.

But the universe had other plans.

The Shape of Normal explores Cathy's intense denial and devotion as she struggles to face the challenges of raising a girl with cognitive disabilities. Convinced her diagnosis can be undone with just the right amount of single-mindedness, she turns it into a dark prophecy. But she'll have to overcome adversity and learn the lesson of acceptance before realizing her daughter was never broken.

Cathy was never on a hero’s journey to save her child. She needed to save herself. 

Praise for The Shape of Normal
★★★★★ “A powerful testament to how our children challenge us to accept them for who they are.” ~Monica Wesolowska, author of Leo + Lea

★★★★★ “Bold, funny, heartbreaking... Nominally, it’s about raising a child with disabilities, but in fact, it’s about raising a child. It's filled with laughs and grit and unforgettable stories and unstoppable love. Everyone should have a mother like Catherine Shields.” ~Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

★★★★★ “Raw, compelling, and brutally honest...a tender exploration of the nuances of raising a child with cerebral palsy that focuses on the often-overlooked emotions of love, fear, guilt, and loneliness... Filled with beauty and insight...impossible to put down.” ~Aileen Weintraub, author of Knocked Down: A High-Risk Memoir

★★★★★ “Ms. Shield’s experience, filled with frustration, fear, laughter, and tears, certainly provokes empathy and joy in the reader.” ~Wendy Nottoli, M.A., CCC, BCaBA, Speech-Language Pathologist

Free online: Holiday Survival Guide. This is not a literary event (although we think reading is a great way to "survive" any season), but it sounds like a fun way to prepare for the holidays. The organizers will share expert tips, tricks, and hacks to equip you with everything you need to make this your best holiday season ever.

"Life moves fast. One day, you’re playing kick the can with kids named Flick and Schwarz, and the next thing you know, you’re paying taxes and pulling out grey hairs." ~Ralphie from A Christmas Story (based on In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd)

Today, LitNuts is shining a spotlight on the work of A.W. Kaylen, an author who grew up hearing stories from her detective father and went on to write authentic crime thrillers for readers everywhere! Read on to learn about books in the Heather Chase FBI Series. 

Bonus: Get Dirt Dealers, the Heather Chase FBI Series Prequel, FREE!

Silent Witness: Heather Chase FBI Series Book 1

A lifeless body. A string of secret affairs. A silent witness no one knows about.

Is it textbook suicide? The NYPD thinks so. But FBI Special Agent Heather Chase has her doubts…

She must get to the truth quickly before the case gets closed in a hurry. It soon becomes clear that the perpetrator is leading the investigation astray and is always one step ahead. Is someone tipping off the killer?

Without a witness, Chase is about to lose this case for good. She must act fast before the killer covers all their tracks. It dawns on her that she’s been chasing crumbs left for her to follow. How could she have missed the telltale signs? Her instincts have been trying to tell her all along who the killer is. But she was afraid. Not anymore.

Silent Witness is the stand-alone first book in the Heather Chase FBI Series.

Frozen Justice: Heather Chase FBI Series Book 2

A victimless murder. A secret plan that could forever change the geopolitical landscape. And a ghost partner she’s supposed to trust.

FBI Special Agent Heather Chase is dispatched to a murder scene in the middle of the night, hundreds of miles away. Immediately, she feels something’s off. She finds herself working with a new partner whose name doesn’t even exist in the system. Who is he?

Deploying her deep infiltration tactics, Chase discovers a startling secret at the university. She soon realizes she’s chasing the victim instead of the murderer.

Ambushed by highly trained assassins, Chase becomes the hunted. More dead bodies turn up, but no sign of the killer. When Chase discovers a secret plan that puts the United States on the brink of war, she has mere hours to intervene.

Will Chase be able to stop the catastrophe in time?

Chasing Dragons: Heather Chase FBI Series Book 3

Millions vanished. Key personnel AWOL. A bizarre bank robbery.

FBI Special Agent Heather Chase and her partner are on the case to recover the money. Except this is no ordinary robbery. 

No forced entry. No obvious perpetrator. No apparent victim. The money is simply gone. It soon becomes clear to Chase they’re hunting ghosts. How can this impossible mission be accomplished?

Relying on her deep infiltration tactics, Chase disappears into the darkness of the underworld…the dungeon where dragons roam. She discovers a startling secret…a secret that could send the whole economy into a tailspin.

Grappling with greed, murder, and corruption, the deeper she digs the messier it becomes. All it takes is one misstep for everything to come crashing down.

Will Chase be able to save the financial system from complete collapse?

Heather Chase FBI Series

Get the entire series! Gear up for riveting crime fiction that will sweep you off your feet with pulse-pounding action, creative twists, and a badass heroine who is hell-bent on delivering justice.

The explosive Heather Chase FBI Series is perfect for readers who love hardboiled detective novels with an imaginative new spin.

    

Free online: NYPL Morning Coffee & Books. Hosted by the New York Public Library, this free, online-only event is an opportunity to bring your favorite beverage and discuss with others what you are reading, listening to, watching, and brewing. Come for the conversations, stay for the recommendations! Saturday, November 18, 11 AM EST. 

"The public library is where place and possibility meet." ~Stuart Dybek

A ridiculously romantic, wildly funny modern fairy tale about an ultra-private crown prince and a beautiful anti-royal blogger who loves to hate him. Until she doesn't. This swoon-worthy, snort-laugh-inducing fairy tale features a woman so far out of her comfort zone she can’t even see it from here, a prince who makes all the right moves for all the wrong reasons, and the cutest pet pig to ever roam the halls of a palace. Book 1 in the Crown Jewels Romantic Comedy Series. 4.4 stars, 5900+ ratings. FREE - SHOP NOW / 

Today, LitNuts is shining a spotlight on Between Jobs, Book 1 in The City Between vampire thriller series from author W.R. Gingell.

★★★★★ "Fresh, sparkling, fun take on Urban Fantasy." ~Amazon Vine Voice Review

Between Jobs by W.R. Gingell

When you get up in the morning, the last thing you expect to see is a murdered bloke hanging outside your window. Things like that tend to draw the attention of the local police, and when you’re squatting in your parents’ old house until you can afford to buy it, another thing you can’t afford is the attention of the cops.

Oh yeah. Hi. My name is Pet. It’s not my real name, but it’s the only one you’re getting. Things like names are important these days.

And it’s not so much that I’m Pet. I am a pet. A human pet: I belong to the two Behindkind fae and the pouty vampire who just moved into my house.

It’s not weird, I promise. Well, it is weird, yeah. But it’s not weird weird, you know?

Praise for Between Jobs
"Quirky, like a visit through the looking glass with supernatural characters." ~Amazon Vine Voice Review

"Dark, hilarious, twisted, and just plain fun." ~Goodreads Review

"Unique urban fantasy." ~Amazon Vine Voice Review

      

Free online literary event: Exile & Ecstasy. Presented by Copperfield's Books, join author Madison Margolin for a discussion of her new book, Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground. Thursday, November 16, 6:30 PM PST.

"Let’s trade in all our judging for appreciating." ~Ram Dass

Hunter Shaw and his bear lead a tranquil life managing Shaw Cabins. But when he meets Naomi Hart, she stirs something in them both. But Naomi is on the run from her ex, and she is terrified. Hunter understands in order to protect her, he may need to release his bear. But will Naomi accept what he is, or will fear of his family secret push her away? If you enjoy reading about small towns with quirky characters and shifter romance stories with fated mates, you’ll love this paranormal romance. Book 1 in the series. 4.2 stars, 220+ ratings. FREE - SHOP NOW / 

In this action-packed financial thriller, Al Ivers and his two brothers live with the constant fear of an elusive killer who has sworn to take revenge on their family. Meanwhile, Al's best friend and advisor, Rafael, is stranded in a tropical storm thousands of miles away, and Kayla must step up to take control of a million-dollar harvest. Will the Ivers brothers—and Kayla and Rafael—survive the killer's wrath, or will their empire come crashing down? Find out in this nail-biting financial thriller. FREE - SHOP NOW / 

Congratulations to Elinora Westfall and Vine Leaves Press on the release of Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre, a collection of thought-provoking poetry. 

★★★★★ "Striking, cinematic imagery." ~Robbie Jarvis, actor

Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre

A woman’s soul is laid bare between these pages, eviscerated, sunk deep between ink and page. Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre is a meandering journey of a heart both scarred and lonely and fierce and wild as it seeks itself in each new incarnation. It is stitched and pieced together with the blades of grass and faded-yellow ribbons that string themselves through each poem, following the thread of love, through grief and trauma, suicide and rose-tinted memories while traversing the vague and uneven road to self-rediscovery.

Praise for Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre
★★★★★ “Breathtaking... work that needs to be read and re-read and which I’m sure will be quoted in years to come.” ~Samantha Giles, actress

★★★★★ “I’ve no doubt this collection will become a beloved, well-thumbed go-to whenever we need that deeper connection often lacking on our day-to-day lives.” ~Simone Lahbib, actress

★★★★★ “Striking, cinematic imagery. Achingly beautiful use of language. It’s a remarkable collection.” ~Robbie Jarvis, actor

★★★★★ “Thought-provoking and eloquent. A magnificently written collection.” ~Kate Stagg, poet