Book Details:

Driving Miss Crazy by D.J. Van Oss
ISBN: 9780692685730
Published: May 29, 2016

Published by: Blue Penny Press
Trade paperback: 290 pages
Content rating: G

Book Description:

He’s got a car. She’s got places to be. If only things were that simple. Maggie MacNally always falls short, no matter what she does. Whether it’s her career or her love life, nothing ever ends up right, and even as she tries to put her work mishaps and dating missteps behind her to forge a new life in Washington DC, she wonders: is she really heading where she wants to go, or simply following in the family footsteps? But just as she’s considering packing it all in, an out-of-the-blue proposal from her influential grandmother offers her one last chance at success — a chance which puts her in the path of beguiling and mysterious French diplomat, Valery. 

Meanwhile, diplomatic driver and widowed father Adrian Adams isn’t looking to change anything about his life, he just wants to keep his seven-year-old daughter Charlie safe and happy. The last thing on his mind is finding love again – and the last thing he expects is to suddenly lose his job. Luckily, he’s soon got a new assignment, one which brings him face to face with an overworked, stressed-out, but oddly charming Irish girl with a penchant for talking to squirrels: Maggie. It’s not long before Adrian finds himself, unwittingly, falling in love again. Will Maggie seize the life she's always yearned for, or be left with the pieces of yet another broken dream? And will Adrian take a second, crazy chance at love, or just play it safe? And what's with all the squirrels?




This is a delightful story filled with humour, fun, love and family. Adrian Adams, a widower, is raising a 7-year-old girl, Charlie, on his own, following the death of his beloved wife. He's a diplomatic driver. Maggie MacNally is the granddaughter of an influential Irish woman who offers her a job at the Irish embassy in Washington, helping to organize a huge fundraising gala. Interesting things start to happen when Adrian becomes Maggie's driver.

I appreciate the skill with which the author developed the characters. I liked Adrian and Charlie immediately. Maggie didn’t grab me at first. I found her shallow and irritating, but, by the end of the story I was rooting for her. My favourite character is Charlie, Adrian's adorable, spunky daughter.

Good novels have a bad guy and in this case the author created an excellent villain. Despite his elegant, sophisticated ways, I was suspicious of him from the outset. Nobody can be that perfect! In Adrian's words, "he looks like he just swallowed a pompous cat who just swallowed a sour mouse."

This debut novel is a skillfully-written, fast-paced romantic comedy. The author does not resort to sexual content to hold the reader's attention. It's easy to read with creative twists and turns that held my interest until the end. Bravo Mr. Van Oss!

Sandra Olshaski's disclaimer: Thanks to the author for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this book.



D. J. Van Oss writes sweet and sunny romantic comedies with an emphasis on second chances; kind of like the book version of finding an extra packet of icing for your fresh cinnamon roll.

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AMAZON #1 BESTSELLER!

This Behind-the-Scenes Tell-All About Doubling for Celebrity Superstars Also Reveals the Compelling Life Story of an Insecure Hollywood Arrival Who Rises to the Top of Her Field, But Pays a Hefty Price.

• Addiction
• Chauvinism  
• Big Egos collide with the surprising kindness of superstars.

Discover the magic and the tragic stories of many great films & TV shows through the eyes of a stuntwoman. Dalton reveals what it took to hang over cliffs, get hit by a moving car, drop from five stories up, dodge an avenue full of speeding cars--and to ignore the Universe's more gentle prompts that it was time to quit and follow her passion into acting full-time or teaching acting. 

The resulting career-ending spinal injury has a story of its own, how she researched medical and alternative paths that form the heart of what she shares with the world today. "What stands out in this book is the indomitable spirit the author has, despite the extraordinary price she paid for her stellar career--including misogyny, a miscarriage, and a life-long back injury. And each juicy story she relays in her fascinating chronicle, brings home an important life lesson for the reader--one that she learned the hard way.

• Stunt Gal Lisa Dalton tattles about humorous and harrowing tales culled from over 200 films, television shows and commercials including 
• Ghostbusters 
• Money Pit
• Crocodile Dundee
• Married to the Mob
• FX 
• Legal Eagles
• The Last Dragon
• Saturday Night Live  
• Splash
• The Highlander
• World According To Garp

Working with or doubling such superstars as Meryl Streep, Cher, Madonna, Grace Jones, Robert Redford, Katherine Hepburn, Sean Connery, Tom Hanks, Chevy Chase, Robin Williams, Ed O'Neill, Michelle Pfeiffer and more.

​Buy the Book: Amazon

Watch the trailer:

• Train in Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique because it prepares you emotionally, physically and psychologically to achieve peak performances in a healthy way.

• NEVER allow any teachers, directors or fellow actors to abuse you. You deserve to respect yourself for loving this art and you must demand that same respect from all others.

• Cultivate your relationships to all of the arts as they feed each other. Great Acting is like music and sports, like painting and sculpting.

• It’s not who YOU know, it is who knows you and LIKES you. So, if you live your life fully, with appreciation for your art, and if you go the extra mile for others, with kindness, professionalism and build strong skill sets, you will work.

• Talent is the least important ingredient to success. Knowing what you truly want, engaging self-discipline and staying focused are more important than whether you have “it.”

• If you LOVE doing this, then you have it and should do it, whether it is in community theatre, churches, or professionally. The world needs great healthy actors to inspire them.

• Acting is among the oldest professions in humanity, found carved into the caves. It uplifts, educates and unites the tribe. It defends more causes than any lawyer. It heals more than doctors do. Five minutes appreciating your performance gives the audience a six-hour immune system boost. So be proud of your love of acting and train like an athlete of thoughts, feelings, and desires.

Meet the Author:

From a bullied, dyslexic, messy, freckle-faced, klutzy pixie, Lisa Loving Dalton grew into a statuesque and skillful stuntwoman, actor, director, teacher, author, filmmaker, leadership and life coach, and ceremonial minister. Always seeking and finding the silver lining, she has made the most of whatever life threw at her. She says, “I spill stuff, trip and drip all of the time so I made a career out of it. My advice: Embrace what is as perfect.”
​
Dalton appeared in more than 200 films, television shows and commercials in New York, Hollywood and Texas, including work in Ghostbusters, Money Pit, Crocodile Dundee, Married to the Mob, FX, Legal Eagles, and Splash on the big screen and ER, HBO’s Carnivale, Dr. Quinn and Melrose Place among her many TV credits.

Connect with the author:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Youtube ~ Instagram

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The Golden Sun by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

From the beloved author of Secret Daughter comes a moving new novel of a young man at the crossroads of life.

Anil is the cherished son of a large family in rural India. As the eldest boy, he is expected to inherit the role of leader of his clan and arbiter of its disputes, dispensing wisdom and good advice. Leena is his closest companion, a fiercely brave girl who loves nothing more than the wild terrain where they live and her close-knit family. As childhood friends, they are inseparable – but as adulthood approaches, they grow apart.

Anil is the first person in his family to leave India, the first to attend college, the first to become a doctor. Half a world away in Dallas, Texas, he is caught up in his new life, experiencing all the freedoms and temptations of American culture: he tastes alcohol for the first time, falls in love, and learns firsthand about his adopted country’s alluring, dangerous contradictions. Though his work in a gritty urban hospital is grueling, Anil is determined to carve out his own life in America.

At home, Leena dreams of marriage, a strong and true love like the one shared by her parents, and leaves her beloved home to join her new husband’s family in a distant village.

Then things start to go wrong: Anil makes a medical mistake with tragic results, his first love begins to fray and a devastating event makes him question his worth as a doctor and as a friend.

On a visit home, Anil rekindles a friendship with the woman who seems to understand him better than anyone else. But their relationship is complicated by a fateful decision made years earlier. As the two old friends try to understand their feelings toward each other, they must also finally find a way to balance responsibility with freedom and loyalty with love.

Of Stillness and Storm by Michèle Phoenix

“I felt torn between two worlds. Each with its own mystery. One more captivating than the other, but the other more real and breathing.”

It took Lauren and her husband ten years to achieve their dream—reaching primitive tribes in remote regions of Nepal. But while Sam treks into the Himalayas for weeks at a time, finding passion and purpose in his work among the needy, Lauren and Ryan stay behind, their daily reality more taxing than inspiring. For them, what started as a calling begins to feel like the family’s undoing.

At the peak of her isolation and disillusion, a friend from Lauren’s past enters her life again. But as her communication with Aidan intensifies, so does the tension of coping with the present while reengaging with the past. It’s thirteen-year-old Ryan who most keenly bears the brunt of her distraction.

Intimate and bold, Of Stillness and Storm weaves profound dilemmas into a tale of troubled love and honorable intentions gone awry.

Clara Humble and the Not-So-Super Powers by Anna Humphrey

Clara Humble may seem like your average fourth-grader who doesn’t look before she leaps, but she has a secret: she thinks she might have superpowers. Which is convenient, because things aren’t going so well for Clara. Students from rival R. R. Reginald are moving into her school for the term, and Clara’s favorite neighbor, Momo, is moving to a faraway retirement home.

Together with her best friend, Bradley, the winsome and overconfident Clara becomes convinced that her knack for making liquids spill, overhearing her parents’ conversations, communicating with her pet chinchilla, and maybe even mind-controlling teachers could be used to put a stop to these injustices. Sure, these “powers” may not be as impressive as built-in Wi-Fi or the ability to barf data clouds—both hacks possessed by @Cat, the bionic superhero of the comic book series Clara is creating—but they’re Clara’s best bet.

Told in Clara’s clever, funny, and strikingly authentic voice, this novel kicks off a new series by inviting readers into this memorable character’s inventive mind to share in her misadventures. Annotated with Clara’s comic sketches, it’s a fast-paced read with a spot-on perspective of life as a 10-year-old that kids will surely relate to.

Killing It: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart by Sheryl O'Loughlin

The former CEO of Clif Bar, Co-founder of Plum, and serial entrepreneur offers insights about launching and growing a business while maintaining a fulfilled life in this practical guide filled with hard-won advice culled from the author’s own sometimes dark, raw experiences. With a foreword by Steve Blank.

Aspiring entrepreneurs are told that to launch a business, you must go all in, devoting every resource and moment to making it work. But following this advice comes at an enormous personal cost: divorce, addiction, even suicide. It means sacrificing the intangibles that make life worth living.

Sheryl O’Loughlin knows there is a better way. In Killing It, she shares the wisdom she’s gained from her successful experiences launching a company from the ground up (Plum), running two fast-growing companies (Clif Bar and REBBL), and mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs (Stanford University). She tells it like it is: If you don’t invest in your wellbeing, your business will not succeed, nor will you.

Sheryl knows firsthand the difficulty of balancing the needs of her growing family with her physical and mental health, while managing other work and life challenges. In this warm, honest, and wise handbook, she gives you the essentials for killing it in business—without killing the rest of your life.

Filled with real-life examples and anecdotes, Killing It addresses common questions including:

• How do you prepare your significant other for your business venture?
• How do you time launching and growing your business with the ebb and flow of family life?
• How do you find joy in the day-to-day?
• How do you maintain meaningful, supportive friendships?
• How do you walk away and start again?

The ultimate life and business course, Killing It gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to start their enterprise and thrive—both in the office and at home.

Forever Painless: End Chronic Pain and Reclaim Your Life in 30 Minutes a Day by Miranda Esmonde-White

End chronic pain—for good—with this practical guide from the PBS personality behind Classical Stretch and author of the New York Times bestseller Aging Backwards.

Chronic pain is the most common cause of long-term disability in the United States. Twenty percent of American adults accept back spasms, throbbing joints, arthritis aches, and other physical pain as an inevitable consequence of aging, illness, or injury. But the human body is not meant to endure chronic pain. Miranda Esmonde-White has spent decades helping professional athletes, ballet dancers, and Olympians overcome potentially career-ending injuries and guiding MS patients and cancer survivors toward pain-free mobility. Now, in Forever Painless, she shows everyone how to heal their aching bodies and live pain free.

The root of nearly all pain is movement—or lack thereof. We need to move our bodies to refresh, nourish, and revitalize our cells. Without physical activity, our cells become stagnant and decay, accelerating the aging process and causing pain. People who suffer chronic pain often become sedentary, afraid that movement and activity will make things worse, when just the opposite is true: movement is essential to healing. In Forever Painless, Miranda provides detailed instructions for gentle exercise designed to ease discomfort in the feet and ankles, knees, hips, back, and neck—allowing anyone to live happier, healthier, and pain-free no matter their age.

My interview with Connie Ruben

LCR: If you could travel back in time, where would you go? Who would you see?

CR: This is a funny question as people who know me have heard me say so many times that I would like to go back in time to meet Elvis Presley. I tell myself, and others of course, that I would make him appreciate his life and he would clean up his act and he would still be with us today.. In this scenario of course, he falls in love with me and we live happily ever after….

LCR: What is the funniest (or strangest, or scariest) incident that has ever happened to you?

CR: Years ago, Peter, Grace and I were out at the coast for a vacation. Peter wanted to swim across the channel to the little island nearby and asked me if I would stay close to him in the dingy in case a boat came by. Grace watched from shore as he swam and I guarded him from the dingy. The only problem was that I had never driven the dingy before and was not so good with the controls and the ability to steer it in the direction I needed it to go. 

As Peter seemed to be doing alright, I decided to go off to one side and just practice the steering. I looked over and saw that he was getting close to shore so knew I needed to get the dingy back to his location. As I came close to him, I realized I had slowed down so much I did not have control of steering it left or right, thus, I was going to go right over top of him. I started yelling but he could not hear me. I was terrified I was going to run him over and the motor would kill him. I took one of the oars and began frantically hitting the water around the dingy in attempt to get his attention. 

Finally it worked and Peter turned around in the water just as the oar was coming down on his head. He thought I had lost my mind and when he was able to get next to the dingy and saw that I was crying hysterically, he softened enough to ask me what was going on. I, through my tears and sobs, told him I was afraid I was going to run him over and kill him.. He started laughing when he realized that the only other alternative I could come up with was hitting him over the head with the oar.

LCR: On my goodness, this incident had me laughing so hard! Thank you for sharing a part of your life with me and my readers. 



Connie Ruben is an entrepreneur with well developed management skills. She has run several large companies, and prides herself on empowering others to work to their full potential. Connie also has an intimate knowledge of the challenges and joys of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease, as her mother-in-law Grace was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s disease in 2003. While Connie still struggles to balance her work life and home life, her understanding of this disease has made it easier for her to negotiate the demands of being a caregiver, as well as a wife, mother, and employer. She has written this book in order to share the insights she has gained as Grace’s primary caregiver and friend. Most importantly, Connie wants this book to assure others that caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease can be enjoyable, life-affirming, and emotionally significant.

First, I want to say how much I love this book cover. And it suits the story very well. I was eager to dig into a story that takes place in a dual world, one of fantasy and the other 1930s Chicago. The story starts off strong as we are introduced to otherworldly characters that set the stage for suspense and action. Bartholomew, a soulcatcher and a breedling makes his escape from his world into Eden, as earth is referred to in this story. He was imprisoned for centuries for not revealing a dangerous secret.

Bartholomew ends up in 1930s Chicago and is discovered in an upper floor of an orphanage at the onset of a terrible disaster. Charlie, a 17 year-old orphan takes him under his wing and Bartholomew as well as the reader discover historical Chicago together as both begin their adventure. I was impressed at how well the author brings this historical setting to life and I could so easily see this as a movie. I love historical fiction and so I loved this setting.

Bartholomew is on a mission as was well established at the onset of the book and I was eagerly anticipating the discovery of what this would lead to. But the search is slow as we are bogged down by some mundane scenes and dialogue that did not advance the plot. There are a lot of characters from the fantasy world that are referenced but never developed so I was left wondering how they were connected to the story.

Charlie is a great character, beautifully developed, strong, kind and smart. We become attached to him as he experiences great loss and we can't help but root for him. Bartholomew is still a mystery, an old soul in a teen body. He is almost broken from his past imprisonment and anguished from keeping his secret. He comes across as naive even though he is ancient and we have yet to discover what his secret is and how exactly this affects Charlie.

This is a promising start to the Element Odysseys books that would have benefited from a better world-building in the fantasy part. The book is well-written, has great imagery, is atmospheric and boasts a good cast of memorable characters. I enjoyed the storytelling, but felt the plot could have been stronger. The ending leaves us with many unanswered questions that I hope will be answered in Book 2.

To read more reviews, please visit Kimberlee Ann Bastian's page on iRead Book Tours.

Enter the Giveaway!

• 8 winners will each get a print or ebook copy of The Breedling & The City in the Garden (print open to USA & Can / ebook open Int’l)
• 1 winner will get the Chicago Swag Box (USA only) Prize contains: Jay’s Potato Chips, Wrigleys Gum, mug, a book on history of Chicago (Then and Now), a magnet and a few other items
• Ends Dec 17

Two years ago I was working in a community center as a Special care Counsellor, creating programs and activities for a Day Program for seniors with Alzheimer's disease. I did that for 4 years and loved my interaction with these seniors who taught me so much about compassion and humour. When I came across The Stages of Grace, I just knew I wanted to read it. The book cover with that beautiful pic of the author with her mother-in-law told me this was going to be a special book and I was right!

Even though Alzheimer's is one of the most difficult diseases both for the patient and the immediate family, and the author is honest and forthright about all the different emotions, fears and mistakes she made as she struggled to understand and deal with this disease, the book is beautiful and inspiring. It is a memoir about how Connie Ruben became the caregiver to her close friend and mother-in-law Grace. Through flashbacks, reflections and anecdotes of events and incidents, Connie brings to life her heartwarming friendship with a woman who she immediately loved from the moment she met her. Grace would become the mother Connie needed.

Reading this book was easy and enjoyable because it flowed well and I quickly became invested in Connie's recounting of her story. As someone familiar with the behaviours and symptoms associated with Alzheimer's I can attest that this book will be comforting for someone dealing with a parent or friend who has this illness. Connie, through examples of what she experienced with Grace, brings out with creative narrative how she dealt with the very difficult moments and situations and the lessons she learned.

I found so many gems of wisdom in this book. With intelligence and grace, Connie reflects on hindsight, insight, adaptability, negotiation, fallibility, acceptance and finally learning to live in the moment. It was truly a satisfying read.

In essence, this memoir is a tribute to Connie's love for her friend Grace. It is a touching account, heartbreaking at moments, delightful, sad, funny and faith-strengthening in the power of love. I think every person with ageing parents should read this book. Highly recommended!

Disclosure: Thanks to the author for sending me this book for review. I was not told how to rate or review this product.

To read more reviews, please visit Connie Ruben's page on iRead Book Tours.





Connie Ruben is an entrepreneur with well developed management skills. She has run several large companies, and prides herself on empowering others to work to their full potential. Connie also has an intimate knowledge of the challenges and joys of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease, as her mother-in-law Grace was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s disease in 2003. While Connie still struggles to balance her work life and home life, her understanding of this disease has made it easier for her to negotiate the demands of being a caregiver, as well as a wife, mother, and employer. She has written this book in order to share the insights she has gained as Grace’s primary caregiver and friend. Most importantly, Connie wants this book to assure others that caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease can be enjoyable, life-affirming, and emotionally significant.

Connect with the author: Website

I'm so excited to be spotlighting fellow book blogger and author Melissa Muldoon who has released her debut novel Dreaming Sophia. If you are a lover of art history and Florence, then get yourself a copy and become immersed in a novel that will whisk you away to Italy. Read my interview with Melissa and be sure to enter the giveaway to win a copy!

My Review:

Head on over to Essentially Italian to read my review!

To read more reviews, please visit Melissa Muldoon's page on Italy Book Tours.