THE ART OF FORGETTING by Camille Noe Pagan

 Introducing Booking with Manic's June Bash-O-Books!

Stick around for the month of June where every day, including Saturdays, I'll be posting a new book for you to win! Forget this one book or two books a week, I'm behind, and there are a TON of great books I need to share with you, INCLUDING today's book! And, at the end of the month, ONE lucky winner will get a huge box of books as a grand prize for hanging out with me the whole month!

 Check in daily and leave a comment. Each comment (one per post, per book, as usual) is an entry for the grand book prize, so commenting every day ups your chance for winning the grand prize!

FOR MORE DETAILS, CLICK HERE.

And now, let's get to our highlighted first featured book!

The Art of Forgetting

Camille Noe Pagan

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If you missed The Art of Forgetting when it came out in hard cover last year, you are in for a treat now. Last year when I read it, I cracked it open thinking I would take a sneak peek and suddenly I was on chapter six dying to know what was happening with the mystery behind Nathan, Marissa’s ex-love, and wondering about the brain injury that her best friend, Julia sustains. I read this book at a super-fast pace and couldn’t recommend it enough! Such a great read!

Back-of-the-book blurb:

Marissa Rogers never wanted to be an alpha; beta suited her just fine. Taking charge without taking credit had always paid off: vaulting her to senior editor at a glossy magazine; keeping the peace with her critical, weight-obsessed mother; and enjoying the benefits of being best friends with gorgeous, charismatic, absolutely alpha Julia Ferrar.

And then Julia gets hit by a cab. She survives with minor obvious injuries, but brain damage steals her memory and alters her personality, possibly forever. Suddenly, Marissa is thrown into the role of alpha friend. As Julia struggles to regain her memory- dredging up issues Marissa would rather forget, including the fact that Julia asked her to abandon the love of her life ten years ago- Marissa's own equilibrium is shaken.

To enter to win The Art of Forgetting, tell me something you’re always forgetting to do. I ALWAYS forget to be on time!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: THE MONTH OF JUNE IS A SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL MONTH AND ALL THE BOOKS AND ENTRIES WILL APPLY TOWARD A SPECIAL GRAND PRIZE CONTEST! All entries will count toward a grand prize contest at the end of June, so it’s best that you come back DAILY as the more you enter, the more chances you have to win the grand prize of pre-selected books at the end of the month!

As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID (NO anonymous will be accepted – leave an email address if you don’t know how to post to an account!

Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within THREE DAYS from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry ALLOWED per book please. If you scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!

June Bash-O-Books MONTH-LONG BOOK GIVEAWAY

OK, everyone, I'm ready to do this again! Every day starting tomorrow through June 29 (Monday through Saturdays!), I'm bringing you a brand-new book to win! 

You come here every day to enter to win a book and leave a comment, and the more you enter, the more chances you have to win a pile of books at the end of the month! The pile of books at the end of the month is a mystery batch o' books but I guarantee it'll be a good batch!

IMPORTANT NOTES ON THIS MONTH-LONG CONTEST AND GIVEAWAY!


I'll be picking the winners quicker than usual though, giving you all about THREE DAYS to come to the blog and enter per book, and I'm going to once again have to list the winner's name at the TOP of each of the posts because I'll be posting DAILY. Speaking of winners, you should check back on Rock Star in Seat 3A to see who has won that book. 

We're starting FRESH here TOMORROW with at LEAST TWENTY FIVE books lined up DAILY for you to win throughout the month! So come back and get ready for a fabulous line up! 


Want to know what great books are coming your way????


You'll have to check in each and every day, and remember, enter every day, and each time you do, that's an EXTRA entry for you to be entered for the GRAND PRIZE ENTRY at the end of the month where you will win AT LEAST TEN GREAT TITLES, but probably closer to 20 BOOKS!!!!


Got questions, ask away! And remember, Booking with Manic is only open to US and Canadian readers only! Sorry to all those great readers who are international! And thanks to all the publishers, publicists and authors who greatly support our love for books and reading!


Need to reach me? stephanieelliot@gmail.com

Let's GET BOOKING!

HOLD ON TIGHT

Hey everyone! Wanted to touch base and let you know that things have been a little bit crazy over here and I hope you don't give up on me or Booking with Manic! A couple things have been going on but school is out THIS WEEK and very soon I will be posting NEW BOOKS daily! I've started a new freelance copy editing job and it's been taking up a bunch of my time, I've had all three of my children to the pediatrician to the doctor about 4 times in the last week and a half (including one CT scan but thankfully everything and EVERYONE is fine!), my home computer is about to crash HARD so I had to buy a new one, we ventured back to Illinois for 24 hours for a wedding ...

It's been NUTS... but I've also been acquiring a ton of more great books so I promise, promise to be bringing them to you very soon -- within the next week, just please be patient! And I did get all the addresses from the recent winners, so thanks for sending!

THANK YOU ALL for continuing to read, and for being such loyal readers! I promise to continue to bring you awesome books! THANKS so very much! xoxo and PeaCe uP!

xo

THE ROCK STAR IN SEAT 3A by Jill Kargman

Congrats to Tanya Quilts on Colorado! You have won Rock Star! Please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com to get your book!

 

The Rock Star in Seat 3A

By Jill Kargman

You want a fabulous fun read? Here is one that will have you dreaming of the best song you ever heard by the hottest guy who ever sang it! Think INXS’ Michael Hutchence (God rest his soul), Robert Smith of The Cure, John Mayer, Sting, Dave Matthews, Jon Bon Jovi? … who’s your fantasy rock star? 

Imagine sitting next to him on a plane and then HIM falling hot and heavy in love with you and having the hottest sex imaginable with him. But also, HE’s IN LOVE WITH YOU TOO!

Fifty Shades of LAMO… who needs THAT book when you’ve got Jill Kargman’s THE ROCK STAR IN SEAT 3A?

Which, by the way, I read on AN AIRPLANE!! Too bad I already had my rock star of a husband next to me and couldn’t have a real fantasy. Too bad I wasn’t in seat 3B waiting for a hot rock star. OK, my husband might not be a ‘rock star’ but come on, he’s HOT! See:

 He can't sing to save his life though!

But, this book is so much fun! There’s drama because of course, main character Hazel has the perfect boyfriend who is about to propose to her when she meets handsome rock star. But you don’t feel like she’s being a horrible person by following this fantasy because you kind of know in your heart that if [INSERT HOT ROCK FANTASY GUY HERE] met you on a plane and you shared instant hot spine tingling low-stomach aching chemistry, you’d want to do the same exact thing as our lovely heroine Hazel does!

You’ll seriously love it! Here’s the book blurb:

It's Hazel's thirtieth birthday and she has everything she's ever wanted: a kickass job, a dream apartment in New York City, and the perfect boyfriend—who's just days away from proposing. Hazel thinks she's happy but isn't quite ready to settle down. So when her most far-fetched fantasy enters the realm of the possible, shouldn't she drop everything to see it through? 

The morning after her birthday, Hazel boards a flight to L.A. only to get the surprise of her life. When she's bumped up to first class, extra legroom and free drinks are absolutely the last things on her mind when she catches sight of her seatmate: her all-time biggest celebrity crush, rock star Finn Schiller! Only the night before she'd confessed her infatuation with the gorgeous musician, and her boyfriend joked that she had a free pass if she ever met him. Hazel can't believe fate has actually thrown them together. 

Even more unbelievable is that during the flight they genuinely connect. Finn likes her uncensored cursing and wicked sense of humor, and that she's unlike all of his groupies; Hazel likes his killer looks, ripped physique, and soulful music. But what started as a fantasy quickly becomes a real attraction, and after a dream date and taste of the rock-star life with Finn in L.A., Hazel is forced to examine the track her life is on. Indulging in a passionate affair with a rock star seems crazy—but could she ever forgive herself if she walked away from her wildest dream coming true? And is her wildest dream the stuff that happiness is made of? 

A lively novel about a down-to-earth New York City girl who suddenly finds herself in a rock 'n' roll Cinderella fantasy, The Rock Star in Seat 3A is seasoned with Jill Kargman's signature wit and hilarious dialogue. This is a fairy-tale romance with a twist.

I seriously loved this book and didn’t want it to end. It’s a great, quick fun read, but as all great things must come to an end, so did The Rock Star in Seat 3A! If you’d like to enter to win a copy for yourself, tell me who is THE ROCK STAR YOU’D MOST LIKE TO MAKE OUT WITH ON A PLANE, and what song makes you melt? Right now, I think my Go-To song and the guy I’d like to make out with on a plane (even though he gets HORRIBLE press and a totally bad rap) ... my guy would be John Mayer. LOOK, it's MY FANTASY!!! And I love the song Gravity.

Your turn! Tell me girls! I can't WAIT to hear who you want to lock lips with!!!! xo

IMPORTANT NOTICE: As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID, and it's best if you include an email address. DO NOT POST AS ANONYMOUS! 

Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within a week from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry per book please. Make sure to scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!

More WINNERS!

 BOOK WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Thanks to some of you new readers who came by because of Jen Lancaster posting about the giveaway to her book! I'll be having a ton more books to share with you in the coming days, and if you would like to know what's coming up on the blog, you can check out the lineup here: UPCOMING BOOKS.

Here is the next batch of winners. If your name is here, you can email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com and send me your full name and mailing address so I can send you your book! Congrats!

The First Husband by Laura Dave:

Nicole CANative

Saving Ruth by Zoe Fishman:

Carly H 

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner:

Buttah  

Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster:

Shpresime Adili

Stay tuned for next week, where I'll be giving away Arranged by Catherine McKenzie and The Rock Star in Seat 3A by Jill Kargman.

And maybe one or two more... as soon as my kids get out of school, I promise to be posting more books on the blog more often!

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Jen Lancaster's JENERATION X!

Winner announced HERE!

Jeneration X

By Jen Lancaster

I know you’ve all been waiting for this one and I’m always so happy to have my friend Jen Lancaster on the blog. I can’t believe she’s got another book out and this may actually win for having the longest (and coolest!) title to date: 

Jeneration X: One Reluctant Adult’s Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development, or Why It’s Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner

Two things that struck me here on the title alone: I don’t even know what an arrested development is, and I had NO idea that Froot Loops is not spelled FRUIT! Cah-razy!

But, I fell in love with Jen the first time I met her at another good friend’s book signing and Jen didn’t judge me for eating a fallen truffle from the dirty floor in the bar we were in. And she’s proven to be every bit as cool in real life as she sounds in her books. I think that’s why her books are so amazing – you can read them and RELATE. She’s like the best friend you’ve always wanted. You can actually imagine sitting up front with her in a car, (a convertible, right?), your hair blowing in the wind, and you’re jamming to ‘80s tunes on your way to somewhere fabulous to raise some crazy hell, am I right or am I right? Doesn’t that sound so Jen-esque and fun?!

And even though Jen has pulled a fast one on all of us by growing up a little bit in this book, you know she’s still a fun girl at heart, and that she’s still going to play with her Mad Men dolls, and she’ll still do blog posts acting out Twilight scenes (PLEASE Jen!), and that she’ll still buy some crazy stuff on eBay when high on Ambien. Because while we love the grown-up Jen from Jeneration X, we still adore and want to hang out with the Jen from before too!

In Jeneration X, Jen will do some growing up though, and she’ll get life insurance, a mortgage and a mammogram, prepare and host her own Thanksgiving, and tell some Generation Y Ashley Wanna-Be-Writer-Lazy-Ass to basically go eff herself (my favorite chapter – chapter 7 – so far!) in the nicest way possible – by forever immortalizing her in this book. (I wonder if Ashley knows she’s now famous, or would that be infamous?)

Jen learns life lessons along the way, some of the times reluctantly, which she so very generously shares with us in the book.

Here’s a link to a very funny, as always, video as she campaigns to be our next… President? Hell, I’d vote for her! And yes, I’d take Fletch as a body guard!

You can get a sneak peek excerpt of Jeneration X here.

To win Jeneration X, leave a comment on what you MOST love about Jen Lancaster and her books. If there’s some strange chance you’ve not yet been introduced to her, make something up, but damn it, you better make it good! OK, we all know you love Jen, and it's 5 a.m. and I just woke with a raging migraine and can't sleep. I decided to change my question to better reflect the nature of the book - WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL!! But, you can ALSO answer the first question too!


Also ... if you haven't entered to win the other books still up for grabs, these are still currently available so check out these features here on Booking with Manic too:

The First Husband by Laura Dave
Saving Ruth by Zoe Fishman 
Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID, and it's best if you include an email address. Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within a week from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry per book please. Make sure to scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!

WINNERS! And Booking with Manic Announcement

Hi everyone! So, I have WINNER names for you for April books. If your name is listed below, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com with your full name and address so I can get your book to you.

Before I list the winners, there are a couple of housekeeping things to mention. 

First, before I forget, if you head over to InternationalChick Lit Month on Monday, May 7, I will have a guest post there, and I do believe I’ve offered to give away five copies of The Cell Phone Lot, so if you take a few moments to go read about how I morphed from a mommy blogger to a book blogger and leave a comment, you could still have a chance to read my e-novella. And it would look really cool to the people who put the ICLM program together to see that I had a whole bunch of commenters over there. So please and thank you! : )

Next: You may have noticed that I haven’t been personally blogging here in a long while. My kids are growing up and it’s no longer cool to dish about their personal lives any longer. So, I do that over here now at SheKnows Real Moms Guide where they have NO IDEA! If you’d like to read stuff there, please feel free to do so. I’m there every day with some very cool moms.

You also may have noticed that because it’s no longer a personal ‘mommy’ blog, I’ve switched the name to:
 

"Booking with Manic"

to obviously better reflect what goes on here. BOOKS! Which brings me to the next point: 

I have a TON, and I mean A TON of books here that I need to share with you – seriously SO MANY to tell you about that I could give away a new book every single day! The problem is, I don’t have enough time to read them all. I need to know from you if I am giving you ENOUGH information about the books and if you’re happy with the format I’m providing?

Do you like the types of books I’m sharing with you? Are there authors I’m not featuring you would like to see? Tell me which ones!

Do you want other genres? Tell me what is on your wish list and I can try to make it happen. This is a blog for YOU and I would love to find books that you desire!

Summer is almost here, and that means my duties as taxi driver, school teacher, chef (when I cook!), etc, etc, slow down a bit and I will have more time to dedicate to the blog. My summer goal is to be able to bring you 3-5 books a week on the blog. I am very much hoping to make this happen. My kids get out of school in less than three weeks! Can you hang on until then! If so, here is the lineup for summer... click on the links to check out all these amazing books just waiting for you! ...

In the Bag Kate Klise

The Art of Forgetting Camille Noe Pagan

The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D Nichole Bernier

I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag Jennifer Gilbert

The Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh

What Alice Forgot Liane Moriarty

A Surrey State of Affairs Ceri Radford

Praying for Strangers River Jordan

More Like Her Liza Palmer

I Couldn’t Love You More Jillian Medoff

Where We Belong Emily Giffin 

Hand Me Down Melanie Thorne

The Feedstore Chronicles Travis Erwin

Between You and Me Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Jeneration X Jen Lancaster

Arranged Catherine McKenzie

Ten Girls To Watch Charity Shumway

The Rock Star in Seat 3A Jill Kargman

 

Prosper in Love Deborah Michel

Objects of My Affection Jill Smolinski

Viewer Discretion Advised Cindy Roesel

Wife 22 Melanie Gideon

Keepsake Kristina Riggle

In One Person John Irving

 

The Next Best Thing Jennifer Weiner

Monarch Beach Anita Hughes

And so many more to come!

How does that sound for a great summer line-up!

Want in? Just keep coming back to Booking with Manic, and it would really be terrific if you could share this link on your FB or Twitter! 

The next three in the line-up will be … Arranged, Jeneration X and The Rock Star in Seat 3A so stay tuned, but in the meantime, here are the recent book winners … and if you could kindly leave a comment on how you would like to see this blog run in the future, I would LOVE some feedback – 

on how to announce winners 

how much time to allow you all to enter before I choose winners (am I giving you too much time?)

if you like the books I’m featuring

what do you wish I would do differently on the blog - anything that would make it easier for you? Or more fun?

PS – I LOVE reading your answers to the questions I pose for each book and I feel connected to you all. ALSO, there are so many times I want to comment, but if I do, it will mess up the format for how I choose a winner through random.org so that is why I don’t comment but I LOVE learning about your favorite summers, best wedding stories, favorite song memories! Also, if you are not my Facebook friend yet, please friend me – you’ll find out about posts and updates on this blog so much faster and other great book info! Just let me know when you FB me that you are from the blog!

Here are the recent winners (please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com with your full name and address so I can get your book to you):

You Are What You Wear:

qweska8402 said:

I have some old beat up tshirts from high school. They are full of holes and about 3 sizes too big, but I will never get rid of them!

The Wedding Beat:

Denise said:

I was in a friend's wedding in Savannah, and for the bridal party instead of a limo we had a trolley drive us around, which was fun and cool.

These Girls:

Dani In Chicago said:

I met my best friend in nursery school. She beat me up because she thought I stole her penis. True story.

Jeff One Lonely Guy:

Kristin C said:

I was very lonely after I had my son almost 2 years ago. He was in the NICU the whole time, so I sent my husband home with our 16 month old daughter at the time to keep her on a schedule. I spent the whole time recovering from my c-section alone with my little guy in the NICU. It lead to post-partum depression and an extremely lonely time in my life.

The Song Remains the Same:

 Lizett34 said:

Montel Jordan's This Is How We Do It, will always remind me of high school. It was a song that if we heard it on the radio, we knew it would be a great night =)!

   

How to Eat a Cupcake:
Emma S. said:
red velvet