Here we Go!!

I've got a few things going on here today

chicks, so make sure you scroll all the way down to see the whole post!

First,

Marie Force,

author of Love at First Flight and Line of Scrimmage

is joining us today with a Guest Post and a giveaway!

Together Forever?
By: Marie Force
I recently read a review of my new book, Love at First Flight, written by a woman who was rocked to the core by something that happens in the book. The reviewer, married for more than twenty years to her high school sweetheart, wasn’t expecting a storyline about a man who’d been with the same woman for ten years (since he was seventeen) and had begun to wonder if he was missing out on something.

When we meet Juliana in Love at First Flight, she’s on her way to Florida to spend the weekend with her longtime boyfriend Jeremy. Together since their junior year of high school, the two are now twenty-seven and have been living together for four years. Until they are forced to spend an interminable year apart when Jeremy’s company sends him from their Baltimore home to do a job in Florida, Juliana had never given much thought to why they never married. But as the months of separation unfold, tiny cracks begin to appear in what she’d always viewed as an idyllic relationship.

During their weekend together, Jeremy confesses to his curiosity about other women, which tips Juliana’s world upside down. In writing their painful conversation, I tried to convey the epic struggle Jeremy has waged with wanting to remain faithful to the woman he has loved his entire adult life while contending with the uncertainty of whether he’s prepared to remain faithful to her forever. Jeremy’s curiosity results in Juliana suggesting they take a three-month break from each other to make sure they are both prepared to go forward together. Ironically, during their break it’s Juliana who finds new, unexpected love with a man she met in the airport on her way to see Jeremy.

The reviewer couldn’t help but see her own marriage through Jeremy’s eyes. Does her own husband wonder what he’s missed out on by being with the same woman all his life? Days after finishing the book, she continued to view her husband through different eyes and was unsettled by these new thoughts. We talked about it on her blog, and I urged her to talk to her husband, who would no doubt put her mind at ease.

I have friends who’ve been together nearly thirty years—since our freshman year of high school. In fact, they were our class couple. We’ve recently been closer than we ever were in school because our daughters became friends. After spending time with them, I’m amazed at how devoted they continue to be to each other even after all these years. It can happen. Lightning can strike at a young age, and the electricity really can last a lifetime. As I watch my children, now almost 14 and 11, grow up I wonder if their lifelong loves are just around the corner or further down the road. How will it happen for them?

How did it happen for you? Anyone out there married to their high school sweetheart and happily content? Do you ever wonder what you might’ve missed out on?
To find out what Juliana decides to do, you’ll have to read Love at First Flight, now in bookstores. If you wish to discuss all the rules I broke in the book, join me Monday, July 20, at 7 p.m. EDT on my blog (http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com) for a book club

Marie has been kind enough to offer one copy of each of her books to one lucky winner!

All you need to do to win is leave a comment with your email!!

Next up:

Product Description From Amazon:

It is 1498, the dawn of the Renaissance, and Venice teems with rumors of an ancient book that holds the secret to unimaginable power. It is an alchemist's dream, with recipes for gold, immortality, and undying love. Everyone, rich and poor alike, speculates about the long-buried secrets scrawled in its pages and where it could possibly be hidden within the labyrinthine city. But while those who seek the book will stop at nothing to get it, those who know will die to protect it.
As a storm of intrigue and desire circles the republic that grew from the sea, Luciano, a penniless orphan with a quick wit and an even faster hand, is plucked up by an illustrious chef and hired, for reasons he cannot yet begin to understand, as an apprentice in the palace kitchen. There, in the lavish home of the most powerful man in Venice, he is initiated into the chef's rich and aromatic world, with all its seductive ingredients and secrets.
Luciano's loyalty to his street friends and the passion he holds for a convent girl named Francesca remain, but it is not long before he, too, is caught up in the madness. After he witnesses a shocking murder in the Palace dining room, he realizes that nothing is as it seems and that no one, not even those he's come to rely on most, can be trusted. Armed with a precocious mind and an insatiable curiosity,
Luciano embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the truth. What he discovers will swing open the shutters of his mind, inflame his deepest desires, and leave an indelible mark on his soul.
Rich with the luxurious colors and textures of Venice, The Book of Unholy Mischief delights the senses and breathes fresh life into an age defined by intellectual revival and artistic vibrancy. A luminous and seductive novel, it is, at its heart, a high-spirited tribute to the fruits of knowledge and the extraordinary power of those who hold its key. In a world of violence an d in trigue, who guards the truth?

WHAT I THOUGHT:This book is different from anything I've read since...well..I can't remember when...I liked it, it had sort of a fairy tale feel to it that was fun and interesting. The author does a really great job of developing the characters and making you want to know more about them and paints a really beautiful picture of Venice.

That's it for today!

READ ON CHICKS!!