At Politics and Pros, Kristi of Kritters Ramblings and I went to meet Koethi Zan.
Koethi was a lawyer and enjoyed crime books. She talked about her writing process and answered several questions. Then she read the first chapter of her book.
This is her book: 
Enjoy your read!
Author: Susan Mallery
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Pages: 325
Genre: Romance
Source: Library
Goodreads: After Andi Gordon is jilted at the altar, she makes the most impetuous decision of her life – buying one of the famed Three Sisters Queen Anne houses on Blackberry Island. Now the proud-ish owner of the ugly duckling of the trio, she plans to open her own pediatric office on the first floor, just as soon as her hunky contractor completes the work. Andi’s new future may be coming together, but the truth is she’s just as badly in need of a major renovation as her house.
When Deanna Phillips confronts her husband about a suspected affair, she opens up a Pandora’s Box of unhappiness. And he claims that she is the problem. The terrible thing is, he’s right. In her quest to be the perfect woman, she’s lost herself, and she’s in danger of losing her entire family if things don’t change.
Next door, artist Boston King thought she and her college sweetheart would be married forever. Their passion for one other has always seemed indestructible. But after tragedy tears them apart, she’s not so sure. Now it’s time for them to move forward, with or without one another.
Thrown together by fate and geography, and bound by the strongest of friendships, these three women will discover what they’re really made of: laughter, tears, love and all.
Ope’s Opinion: Susan Mallery hit another home run! This book read so fast! The story of all three women were relatable and fast moving. It was great to see each woman’s story move forward in each chapter. It made it seem more like real time.
The intimate details of the romance is my least favorite part, but at least each woman was with only one man. They were real relationships with flaws and heart felt struggles. As you read, you will want each woman to be happy at the end. You can’t help but route for them.
I want more of the Blackberry Island books! This may be my favorite Susan Mallery book to date. So keep writing!
Rating: Four Chairs – I like the book so much I know several friends to share it with.
![Leah-Konen-author-photo-90k[12]](https://opesopinions.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/leah-konen-author-photo-90k12.jpg?w=190&h=272)
Leah Konen is a writer living in San Francisco. She is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and creative writing. Her work has been published in Elle Decor, Good Housekeeping’s Quick & Simple, Parenting, The Fiscal Times, and several regional newspapers and magazines. The After Girls is her first novel.
I am very excited to interview Leah and to read her book The After Girls!
1. What do you like to read? Does it influence your writing?
Though it doesn’t have much to do with the themes of THE AFTER GIRLS, I learned pretty much everything I know about writing from obsessively reading Jane Austen. I’d like to think that, even indirectly; her work has had a big influence on me.
2. Did you have an experience like the girls in The After Girls? Which girl do you most identify with?
Not exactly. But about halfway through writing THE AFTER GIRLS, a friend of mine passed away at a young age from cancer. Friendship and grief became incredibly real to me, and it definitely affected how I wrote THE AFTER GIRLS.
As far as characters, all my friends and family tell me that I am Ella. I don’t quite know how to feel about this, because Sydney is definitely my favorite. She plays in a cool folk band, she dies her hair, she doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her—she’s so cool!
3. What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t writing?
I feel like I’m always writing! But when I’m not, I’d say my second-favorite thing is reading. Then biking around San Francisco, going on cool trips through California, playing with puppies. The usual.
4. Do you plan on doing a tour for this book? Which city would you be most excited to visit?
I did get a chance to go to New York to do some events there around Book Expo America. But if I were going to design my own book tour, I’d say the next city I’d love to visit would be Austin.
5. What are you working on now?
I am so excited about the book I’m working on now–I can’t reveal too much, but it’s also set in the South, and it focuses much more on romance than on friendship.
6. I used to live in Durham, NC and spent time hanging out at UNC – do you miss it?
I can’t even express how much NC impacted me. Though I’ve lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn and now San Francisco, I still set my stories in the South. I definitely miss parts of it (sweet tea and barbecue, for one), and I made some amazing friendships during my time there.
Visit Leah at:
TWITTER
@leahkonen
FACEBOOK
facebook.com/leahkonenauthor
GOODREADS
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16225093-the-after-girls
YOUTUBE TRAILER
AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/The-After-Girls-Leah-Konen/dp/1440561087
INDIEBOUND
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781440561085
BN.COM
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-after-girls-leah-konen/1113491548?ean=9781440561085
My daughter Kristi of Kritters Ramblings and I went to Politics and Pros to see J. Courtney Sullivan.
Since moving to Cedar Cove, Jo Marie Rose has truly started to feel at home, and her neighbors have become her closest friends. Now it’s springtime, and Jo Marie is eager to finish the most recent addition to her inn. In memory of her late husband, Paul, she has designed a beautiful rose garden for the property and enlisted handyman Mark Taylor to help realize it. She and Mark don’t always see eye-to-eye—and at times he seems far removed—yet deep down, Jo Marie finds great comfort in his company. And while she still seeks a sense of closure, she welcomes her latest guests, who are on their own healing journeys.
Annie Newton arrives in town to orchestrate her grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration. While Annie is excited for the festivities, she’s struggling to move on from her broken engagement, and her grandparents themselves seem to be having trouble getting along. Worse, Annie is forced to see Oliver Sutton, with whom she grew up and who has always mercilessly teased her. But the best parties end with a surprise, and Annie is in for the biggest one of all.
High-powered businesswoman Mary Smith, another Rose Harbor Inn guest, has achieved incredible success in her field, yet serious illness has led her to face her sole, lingering regret. Almost nineteen years ago, she ended her relationship with her true love, George Hudson, and now she’s returned to Cedar Cove to make amends.
Come along for a weekend of books with my daughter Kristi of Kritters Ramblings and I! We left Tyson’s Corner, VA Saturday early morning to head off to Baltimore for a couple of days drenched in books! Our first stop was a place called The Book Thing.
This is a very small glimpse into the selection of books they have. They replenish them as fast as you can take one off the shelf. All the books here are donated and are free for the taking. Here is my list of books I brought home:
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Bulls Island by Dorothea Benton Frank
Custody by Nancy Thayer
Everlasting by Nancy Thayer
The Hot Flash Club by Nancy Thayer
The Hot Flash Club Chills Out by Nancy Thayer
House of Secrets by Tracie Peterson
The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
The Four Seasons by Mary Alice Monroe
The Summer I Dared by Barbara Delinsky
The Total Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
and for my granddaughter’s shelf: Superfudge by Judy Blume
We hope to return to this book place to donate so someone else will go home as happy as we did!
Next stop was The Ivy Bookshop.
Author: Judy Blume
Publisher: Puffin
Pages: 192
Genre: Children
Source: Purchased
Goodreads: Fans young and old will laugh out loud at the irrepressible wit of peter Hatcher, the hilarious antics of mischievous Fudge, and the unbreakable confidence of know-it-all sheila tubman in Judy blume’s five Fudge books. brand-new covers adorn these perennial favorites, and will entice a whole new generation of Fudge—and Judy blume—fans.
Ope’s Opinion: Oh, this was so much fun to read! It took me back to my daughters younger days. We used to read everything Judy Blume and they both loved Fudge.
As an adult, I did not mind reading this book over and over again to the girls. It never got old and now I am looking forward to reading it to my granddaughter. Some books you just never get tired of reading.
There is the whole Santa Claus issue in the book, so if you have a believer you may want to skip that part.
Loved it and would recommend any one of these books in the series to any child.
Rating: Five Chairs – This book is so good it will be passed on and on and on….
After a struggle, my amazing daughter Jennifer of The Underestimated Mom was able to move Ope’s Opinions from Blogger to Word Press. I am here now and very excited to start this next phase of my blogging.
This is Jennifer in the front. Yea! Jenn!!
Author: Meg Waite Clayton
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Pages: 320
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: My Daughter
Goodreads: Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.
For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.
As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.
Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.
Author: Steven Manchester 
Publisher: Story Plant
Pages: 272
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Steven Manchester
Goodreads: Memories are the ultimate contradiction. They can warm us on our coldest days or they can freeze a loved one out of our lives forever. The McCarthy family has a trove of warm memories. Of innocent first kisses. Of sumptuous family meals. Of wondrous lessons learned at the foot of a rocking chair. But they also have had their share of icy ones. Of words that can never be unsaid. Of choices that can never be unmade. Of actions that can never be undone.
Following the death of his beloved wife, John McCarthy Grandpa John calls his family back home. It is time for them to face the memories they have made, both warm and cold. Only then can they move beyond them and into the future.
A rich portrait of a family at a crossroad, THE ROCKIN’ CHAIR is Steven Manchester’s most heartfelt and emotionally engaging novel to date. If family matters to you, it is a story you must read.
Ope's Opinions 
