Tag: Wendy Wax

Wendy Wax Discusses The House on Mermaid Point (+GIVEAWAY)

Posted July 3, 2014 by Rowena in Giveaways, Promotions | 8 Comments

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Wendy, thanks for joining us and sharing news of your new novel THE HOUSE ON MERMAID POINT.

So many readers are delighted to have a chance to be back with Maddie, Avery and Nicole, the characters you introduced in TEN BEACH ROAD a few years ago. Was it difficult to get back into their lives?

You know, I thought it would be. I was still so caught up in the fun of WHILE WE WERE WATCHING DOWNTON ABBEY and readers’ response to it, that I began to question whether I’d be feeling “at home” with the reassembled ensemble as I had when I wrote Ocean Beach. As it turned out, I found myself immediately at ease when I started that first chapter and looking forward to finding out how they would tackle the challenges I knew were coming. I know it helped that I had already spent time with them while writing my holiday novella, CHRISTMAS AT THE BEACH.

Has a lot changed for the women of TEN BEACH ROAD since OCEAN BEACH?

There have been some big life changes, but the characters are still friends, still taking things one renovation at a time. The case of “regulars” has gotten bigger as characters from the first book have become more involved from one book to the next and become known to readers. Mermaid Point becomes host to the entire Do Over cast and crew – some with small roles and others central to the plot. You’ll find everyone from Kyra, Dustin and Deirdre to Chase, Joe, Troy and everybody’s favorite, charming network executive Lisa Hogan, who once again claims the element of surprise as her ace in the hole.

For those who are just now discovering the novels these characters share, will you give us some background?

You bet. Readers first met Maddie, Nicole and Avery when the three were deeded ownership of Bella Flora, a crumbling historic home on Florida’s Pass-a-Grille Beach, in TEN BEACH ROAD. At that time, all they dared hope was that renovating and selling it would let them rebuild their lives and the bank accounts drained by a Ponzi scheme. They had no idea they’d end up living together for the next two summers, hammers in hand, starring in their own DIY reality television show, Do Over. Indeed, in their second book, OCEAN BEACH, the women – still in desperate straits financially — headed to Miami’s South Beach, with another project and cameras rolling to film their first season. In THE HOUSE ON MERMAID POINT, the show is about to make its on air debut even as they film their second season. This time they’re in the Florida Keys where they’re expected to turn Mermaid Point, the private island of aging, down on his luck rock legend William Hightower, into a bed-and-breakfast. Against his wishes, of course.

Rock ‘n roll and renovation? How did you arrive at that combo?

It started with again needing a character who, to begin with, could afford the sort of house that would make an interesting television setting. So I started thinking celebrity. Then, during my early research, I fell in love with the Florida Keys. I was headed to Key West when I was shown a private island in Islamorada that I just had to have. Then I needed a really high profile, extremely wealthy – at least at one time – mega star. Lots of musicians lived and partied in the Keys and before I knew it, I was thinking about some of my favorite bands and Southern rocker William “Wild Will” Hightower was born.

Who are some of your favorites?

The Allman Brothers, Lynrd Skynrd, Wet Willie…

It was a kick revisiting those times and walking down memory lane helped me imagine Hightower’s music being just as magical as that of the musicians I followed and the wild ride that is part of his past.

I may have had a bit too much fun with the musical memories called up during the writing, I actually ended up trying my hand at a ballad, Mermaid in you, one of the songs for which my mythical Hightower became famous. As part of the release of THE HOUSE ON MERMAID POINT, I touched base with two young musicians who are sons of a friend. Their group is the 10th Concession and they’re well known in the southeastern U.S. They looked at my lyrics, and while I was quickly demoted from writer to co-writer, they worked with me, created the music and now the song has been recorded. It had it’s live debut on June 30th and will be available as a free download. I hope you’ll check it out. Info is posted at authorwendywax.com.

What’s next?

I am happily up to my neck in a new book. But I’m still debating so many different ideas that I don’t want to share too much yet. Lots keep changing. It is, however, set in Manhattan and at New York’s Lake George. More to come …as always, I’ll be sharing more book news on my site, on Facebook and other places. I hope everyone will visit with me in those spots. Also, appearances for and the latest about THE HOUSE ON MERMAID POINT will be shared online along with giveaways and other updates.

Thank you, Wendy.

Thank you! I appreciate being able to share THE HOUSE ON MERMAID POINT with you and visitors of your site.

the_house_on_mermaid_pointExcerpt:

There had been a time, many times actually, when William Hightower would have left rehab in a limo. That limo, sent by his record label, would have had tinted windows, a fully stocked bar, and an eager woman with long legs, big breasts, and a talented mouth perched on the back seat.
His release would have been celebratory and newsworthy with photographers and fans jostling each other outside the gates so that they could snap photos and scream his name as the limo sped by.

The articles and news stories would run for weeks after his release. Each would begin with pictures of him on a stage surrounded by a vast, undulating sea of enraptured fans. Back when the braid that hung down his back was darker than the night sky over a Florida swamp. When he’d swaggered across a stage as if he owned it. As if he were a real Seminole warrior and not a scared kid from a dusty no name town who had two drops of Native American to every gallon of Florida Cracker blood in his veins.

Back then the alcohol and drugs were just part of the gig. They hadn’t yet slowed his fingers or marred his voice, or eaten away the muscle and sinew that held him together, like termites gnawing on a wood shanty. The pain of watching his little brother leave their band, the aptly if offensively named Wasted Indian, in a hearse, hadn’t yet been carved into his face like a name slashed into a tree trunk. Back then the roar of the crowds had convinced him that he was alive. And destined to be young forever.

Today the car that whisked him away from rehab had not been sent by a record company and did not contain drugs, alcohol or a woman, eager or otherwise. It was a muddy brown BMW driven by his angry, tight jawed son whom he barely knew. The only one left from that once-vast sea, the only one bound by the obligation of blood.

“Thanks for picking me up,” Will said.

A grunt was his only answer. Which was perhaps more than he deserved.

“And for arranging my … stay.” It was as close as he could come to admitting that he, William Hightower, who had made and blown millions, couldn’t have afforded the month spent at Three Palms Whole Health Center, which practiced an holistic and adventure based approach to beating one’s demons. Not even if he’d wanted to go there.

There were no gates to drive through. No waiting press. No screaming fans. Just a clean modern building sandwiched between a lake where he’d paddled a kayak until his muscles burned and a pool where he’d numbed his mind and his body with lap after lap. He was leaving far fitter than he had arrived. Fitter than he’d been since he’d played his first gig at seventeen. He’d give the Three Palms folks one thing; they’d forced him to clean up his outside while they’d hammered away at his interior. As if there were anything left in there.

The hair that had once hung down his back barely brushed his shoulders; the glossy black was streaked with gray. His face, bruised and battered by 61 years of hard living was still dominated by a hatchet of a nose and high harsh cheekbones that the camera had once loved. His dark eyes were framed by a spider’s web of lines, but they were clearer than they’d ever been; allowing him to see the world around him as it really was; stark and unrelenting.

They drove south from the hermetically sealed town of Westin, Florida in silence, palm trees sliding by, bold blasts of tropical color climbing walls and snaking up tree trunks. The flat morning light was unforgiving, leaving only the stingiest triangles of shade.

In Florida City the turnpike emptied onto US-1 then onto the two-laned eighteen mile ribbon of asphalt that locals called ‘the stretch.’ It was here that the real world began to dissolve while paradise crooked its finger just ahead. Even on the crappiest day ‘the stretch’ could cause heart rates to slow, stress levels to drop, and brain synapses to fire less frantically. But today Will’s mind flitted at random as Tommy drove sedately, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
Despite the open windows the silence between them hung hot and heavy, stuffed with things that had never been forgiven and which Will sincerely hoped would never be discussed.

A chain link fence was all that held back the scrub and brush as they skirted the Everglades and crossed over the Monroe County Line. Will stole the occasional surreptitious glance at his son, who had inherited his size and coloring and who looked so much like the younger brother he’d been named for that it hurt to look at him. He thought about the boy’s mother, who’d been a casualty of the life they’d lived, too. So many people gone for no good reason.
From the top of the Jewfish Creek Bridge sun glinted off the impossibly turquoise water that flanked them and a warm salt breeze tinged the air and rifled Will’s hair. In Key Largo scuba and bait and tackle shops began to fly by. A strip mall sign promising Pilates in Paradise caught his eye.

The silence spooled out. Will’s eyelids grew heavy. He was close to nodding off when Tommy said, “I talked to the bank. Then I brought in a Realtor to look at Mermaid Point.”

Will’s eyes blinked open. This was what happened when you gave your only blood relative power of attorney. In case of emergency. Never thinking that you might be thrashing it out in rehab when they decided to declare one.

He’d bought the tea-table shaped key on a whim back in the early eighties when Key West had ceased being a place to hide out, kick back and chill. When cruise ships began to arrive and depart daily and crowds longing to be wild and eccentric planted a flag and declared Key West their capital of crazy. Everyone he cared about had fled. Will had only made it seventy-nine mile markers up US-1.

“I’m not interested in selling Mermaid Point.” Not his island. Not ever.

They were passing through Tavernier. Mariner’s Hospital and McDonald’s flashed by and then they were crossing Tavernier Creek. Soon they’d be on Upper Matecumbe, the third of Islamorada’s four keys.

Almost home.

“Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t sell the island without doing something about the house and the outbuildings,” his son said. “Not in the condition they’re in.”

It was Will’s turn to grunt. When he’d bought Mermaid Point it had been one of many homes Will owned. Now it was all he had left. All he wanted to do when he got there was stretch out in a chaise by the pool and zone the hell out. Which wouldn’t be anywhere near as easy without a drink or a joint in his hand.

At the moment he was trying not to think about how he was going to live the next week, let alone the rest of his life, without numbing up. He wasn’t sure his pool—or even the Atlantic Ocean, which his pool overlooked—were big enough to swim the number of laps it would take. He didn’t know if there were enough laps in this world to make the need to detach go away.

“The thing is if the house and grounds could be renovated it would make a great place for an island vacation or a corporate retreat. And you could keep the rooms rented out all the time — I mean you’re still a name. People would pay a fortune to come stay in a property owned and operated by William the Wild.” The tone was derisive. As if he were relating something that he didn’t understand but he knew to be true. “You could make a living as the ‘genial host’ of the Rock n Roll Bed and Breakfast. Or, I don’t know, maybe we should just call it the Wild House.”

“You’re joking.”

Will kept his voice even. He wasn’t even home yet. He was not going to get worked up. Hadn’t he just spent a month trying to learn how to stay calm and in control? “And it’s not like you’d ever get approval for a Bed & Breakfast. There’s an ordinance against them. And a moratorium on building.”

Tommy shook his head dismissively. “That’s just semantics and small town politics. And I never joke about money.” Of course, he didn’t. The kid was a damned Investment Banker with a calculator for a brain. If he didn’t look so much like a Hightower Will might have doubted the paternity test. “Unless you want to end up on the sofa sleeper in my living room? Or an old age home for former rock stars?”

Will crossed his arms over his chest and turned an eye on Tommy. He’d used this look to good effect with record people who’d wanted to turn him into some fancy boy crooner when he was a rocker through and through. And with fans who didn’t understand boundaries or personal space. “That won’t be happening.” If he’d earned anything in all the decades played out onstage, it was privacy. “There’s no way in hell I’m sharing my island or my home with strangers.” He shuddered when he thought of wide-eyed honeymoon couples or worse, sad-eyed retirees in the bedroom down the hall.

You didn’t own a slab of coral rock barely tied to land if you wanted strangers anywhere near you.

His son turned and looked at him. “Well, I’m afraid you don’t really have a choice. You don’t have enough money to live on without using your sole remaining asset one way or the other. You can sell Mermaid Point and the structures on it and live frugally for the rest of your life.” His tone indicated he didn’t believe William had the ability to do any such thing. As if he’d been born to wealth and hadn’t earned his fortune one damned song at a time. “Or you can renovate, play the host to anyone willing to spend the money, and at least keep a roof over your head.”

William’s throat was so parched he could barely swallow. He didn’t know how he’d made such an obscene amount of money and ended up with so little. Or how the son who despised him had come up with such a horrifying plan.

A drink would have smoothed things out. Would at least allow him to pretend he wasn’t a broke, recovering alcoholic. Slowly, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a tootsie roll pop. He unwrapped it carefully and placed it in his mouth as they passed Whale Harbor Marina. The Lor-e-lei whizzed by on his right. Pretty soon they’d see Bud n’ Mary’s Marina which would make him as good as home. He sucked on the thing in silence refusing — in a ridiculous test of will— to give in and bite into its chewy center like he wanted to.

Danielle, his favorite group leader at the facility, had given him a large bag of the pops as a going away present. Idly, he wondered why no one had ever invented a whiskey-flavored version with a shot of Jack Daniels in the center. Maybe that’s what he should do to get back on his feet. Invent an alcoholic version of the Tootsie Pop.

He turned his head to hide his smile, concentrating on the hard, sweet candy in his mouth. Maybe an alcoholic but sugar free version so all the poor alcoholics didn’t become diabetic on top of everything else. He crossed his arms on his chest and let his eyes skim over the familiar surroundings as he sucked on that candy shell.

He could tell by the position of the sun that sunset was only a few hours away. From Mermaid Point he could watch the sun rise over the Atlantic in the morning and see it set over the Gulf every night; both were sights he hadn’t gotten tired of seeing yet.

Back in the day he could have scribbled down a hit song on a napkin between sets in a bar. But that was then. Before he’d turned as old as the fucking hills and lost most everyone he’d ever cared about. This was now. And he was pretty certain that he didn’t have so much as half a melody hidden anywhere inside him.

THE HOUSE ON MERMAID POINT
Wendy Wax
A Berkley Trade Paperback Original/Fiction
On Sale 7-1-14/$15.00 ($17.00 Canada)
978-0-425-26332-7

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Wendy Wax’s Ten Beach Road Read Pink Giveaway

Posted October 13, 2012 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Inline image 4WENDY WAX’S TEN BEACH ROAD IS FEATURED IN PENGUIN GROUP USA’S 2012 READ PINKTM INITIATIVE

Inline image 2    October 2012, New York Metro–Wendy Wax’s TEN BEACH ROAD is part of the third year of Penguin Group USA’s Read Pink program with The Breast Cancer Research FoundationR , undertaken in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  In addition to a donation of $25,000 for ongoing research, the company is raising awareness of the search for a cure by featuring Read Pinkand the fight against breast cancer on the covers of fourteen novels by prominent authors.  The message is seen nationally via hundreds of thousands of books. For more information please visit the Read Pink site.


In addition to TEN BEACH ROAD, Read Pink features novels by Nora Roberts, Carly Phillips, JoAnn Ross, Eleanor Brown, Madeline Hunter, Karen White, Jayne Ann Krentz, Jodi Thomas, Natasha Solomons, Kathryn Stockett, Catherine Anderson, and Jillian Hunter.


Wendy is reaching out to readers with the Read Pink message via her web site, e-mail, social media, and  book blogs and sites. She’s also hoping to spur conversation about the program by offering book clubs the opportunity to enter for a chance to win ten copies of the Read Pink edition of TEN BEACH ROAD for their group and a visit with Wendy at an upcoming meeting via Skype or by phone. 

Commenting upon her participation in Read Pink, Wendy says “Breast cancer never touches just one life. It touches family and friends and even strangers, and its ripples extend through time regardless of the outcome. The amazing strides in treatment and the many who have overcome this disease are welcomed reasons for celebration, but we can’t forget there is still no cure. I am proud to be part of Read Pink and the effort to raise awareness of the need to keep the research and the hope going strong. I’ll be Reading Pink in October. I hope you’ll join me.” 

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Award-winning author Wendy Wax has written eight novels, including Ocean BeachTen Beach RoadMagnolia Wednesdays, the Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist The Accidental Bestseller, and 7 Days and 7 Nights, which was honored with the Virginia Romance Writers Holt Medallion Award. Her work has sold internationally, been excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and been featured in publications such as USA Today and Women’s World.
A Florida native, Wendy lives in Atlanta.  
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LINKS–

Please note: This is not a Book Binge sponsored contest.


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Guest Review: Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax

Posted June 20, 2012 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Publisher: Berkley, Penguin

Judith’s review of Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax

Unlikely friends Madeline, Avery and Nicole have hit some speed bumps in their lives, but when they arrive in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, they are all hoping for a do-over. Literally. They’ve been hired to bring a once-grand historic house back to its former glory on a new television show called Do-Over. If they can just get this show off the ground, Nikki would get back on her feet financially, Avery could restart her ruined career, and Maddie would have a shot at keeping her family together.

At least, that’s the plan – until the women realize that having their work broadcast is one thing, having their personal lives play out on TV is another thing entirely. Soon they are struggling to hold themselves, and the project, together. With a decades-old mystery—and the hurricane season—looming, the women are forced to figure out just how they’ll weather life’s storms.


Where shall I begin?  This is a wonderful “ensemble” grouping of characters, all of whom manage to hold their own in a very crowded line-up, yet each has a story that needs to be told and which makes the stories of the other characters just that much richer.
Madeline is the “mama” of the group who, together with her daughter Kyra (a single mother with a baby to raise) is venturing out with the hope that this reality home restoration project will be “picked up” by the Lifetime Channel as a permanent fixture in their programming.  Maddie has just celebrated the 25th anniversary of her marriage to a man who lost his resources in a ponzi scheme and whose subsequent break-down forced her to dig deep and find strength within herself she had previously allowed to lie fallow.  Kyra’s baby is the son of a famous actor who regularly entertains himself with the newest production assistant, only this time he wants to be a part of his son’s life as well as continuing to make advances to Kyra.  Keeping her own crumbling relationship intact, trying to help Kyra keep a sense of balance when being assaulted with celebrity charm, managing to cook for the crowd, as well as doing her own part with the long list of chores that go along with such a massive renovation project has Maddie pushing the limits of her emotional boundaries as well as her physical strength.
Nicole is the sister of the man who cheated and scammed his way into the hearts and bank accounts of a goodly number of wealthy “investors” as well as taking everything she had–her personal savings, her business (she was a celebrity matchmaker), and very nearly the roof over her head.  This project may very well be the last ditch attempt to not be a homeless person, but she never realized that her personal pain and history would be cannon fodder for the cameras as well.
Avery needs this project to succeed and if it does, it will mean that her own career can once again have a life.  Little does she realize that the designer the network has hired to redecorate and refurbish this “grande dame” of a house is her very own mother, the woman who walked out on her marriage and her daughter years earlier.  Their relationship very nearly torpedoes the project and it is only the desperate circumstances of all their lives that keeps the lid on their heated exchanges and deep angers toward one another.
Now add in a camera crew who wants the most spectacular and possibly scandalous film, an FBI agent whose good looks, quiet calm, and forthright manner toward her begins to win Nicole’s interest in a major way, on levels that no man has ever been able to plumb.  The Italian construction contractor begins to make Maddie feel appreciated at a level she hasn’t experienced for a very long time and stands in stark contrast to the constant stream of criticism of her successes.  And there there is the 51 year old mystery of the missing child of the couple who built the house–Max and Millie, two very successful stage comics whose child was kidnapped when he was three years old.  Millie is gone now, but Max has promised to fix up the house so that it will look good when their boy returns home, a hope they have nurtured for five decades.  Max is a warm and winsome human being, a man who appreciates people, whose warmth and kindness and generosity of spirit has caused Kyra’s baby to love him dearly.  The house rang with the Baby  Dustin’s calls for his good friend “Gax.”  One of the most emotional scenes in the book is when Max is dying and Baby Dustin comes to the hospital to say his good-bye–I don’t think he knew that was what it was–and his arms went around Max’s neck and his face was buried under Max’s chin.  I could so easily visualize it and felt the deep connection between a wonderful old man and a very little boy whose life was just beginning.
Against the backdrop of a wonderful historical dwelling, the lives of these people play out, their energies strengthened by each other’s friendship, their joys and hurts shared, their need to succeed driving them all.  Yet in the midst of all that drive is the underlying necessity for being people in relationship with one another and with those who are important to them, whether or not they know it.  Even when it ended, there was a sense that amid the positive outcomes of a number of these situations, life moved on for them all with the support of their friendship and loyalty.
It’s a terrific book and one that I feel privileged to have experienced.  It’s not easy to manage all those stories and to keep such a cast of characters acting and interacting in a balanced way, but Ms Wax definitely pulled it off.  Beautifully written and constructed by an author who evidently knows what she is doing–what it means to create a full-scale novel–this story challenges the reader to enter in to the full millieu of life with all its ups and downs.  Just one fantastic read, and I hope you’ll take the time to enjoy it as I did.

I give it a rating of 4.25 out of 5


The Series:
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You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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Review: The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax.

Posted July 2, 2009 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Publisher: Berkley, Penguin


Rowena’s review of The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Once upon a time four aspiring authors met at their very first writers’ conference. Ten years later they’re still friends, survivors of the ultra-competitive New York publishing world. Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose bestsellers support a lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason is a single mother juggling two jobs, two kids, and too many deadlines. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of inspirational romances: no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aims’s once-promising career is on the skids—and so is her marriage. Her sales are dismal, her new editor detests her work—and her husband is cheating. Barely able to think, let alone meet her final deadline, Kendall holes up in a mountain cabin to confront a blank page and a blanker future. But her friends won’t let her face this trial alone. Together they collaborate on a novel using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will ever discover the truth behind their words.

No one is more surprised than they are when the book becomes a runaway bestseller. But with success comes scrutiny and scandal…as these four best friends suddenly realize how little they’ve truly known each other.

This book was one of those books that when I first saw the cover, I got a little excited. I like pretty covers and I think the book cover for this one is so pretty and perfect for the summer. I popped this book open and didn’t think that I would be getting the story that I got. I was expecting something light and fluffy and what I got was an emotional story about friendship and courage.

The story follows four author friends who met at a writer’s conference at the beginning of their careers and it’s interesting to see the different roads their lives/writing careers take. We have Mallory St. James, the most successful of the bunch who is a bestselling author who works really hard at what she does, so hard that she sacrifices family time just so that she can write those 20 pages each day then there’s Tanya Mason who is a single mother living with her controlling mother and working two jobs to stay afloat and Fay Truett is an inspirational writer who is married to a televangelist who has a pretty big secret herself and finally there’s Kendall Aim’s. Kendall Aim’s writing career is being shot down the toilet but before she can leave her publishing house, she owes them another story and her friends all come together to help Kendall get this book written. They all collaborate on the book and use bits and pieces from their personal lives to write the book and when Kendall turns it in and it becomes a national bestseller, each of their lives are changed forever.

I enjoyed this book, I thought it was extremely well written and I thought it was a book that I could sink my teeth into time after time. This is definitely going on my keeper bookshelf because I really enjoyed getting to know each of the authors and Ms. Wax did a great job of keeping me engrossed in the story. When the shit hits the fan, you don’t really know what’s going to happen but you can’t help but keep reading to find out. My heart was heavy for these guys because their friendship was tested and they each realized how much they don’t know about each other. I mean, it made me think about my own friendships with my friends. The friends that I’m the closest with, the ones that I think I know so well can truly be different people than I actually think and this book made me want to fix that.

Out of all of them, I think my heart hurt the most for Kendall. I mean, even though I sympathized with them all, it was Kendall’s storyline that I related to the most which doesn’t make any sense since I’m the single mother working everyday to support my kid so you would think I’d relate or connect with Tanya the most but for me, it was Kendall. I really enjoyed getting to know her and I really felt for her with finding out about her writing career then her husband and then with the fallout from Sticks and Stones, I could the frustation that she felt and I thought Ms. Wax did a fantastic job fleshing her character out, she wasn’t perfect but that’s why I liked her. She felt real to me and I liked that.

I thought this was a great book, there were times when it dragged a bit in the middle of the book but for the most part, it was a very engaging story, one that I enjoyed and one that I’m glad that I read. I enjoyed all of the characters and I enjoyed the storyline, it was a refreshing read from what I normally read and I just flat out enjoyed it.

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here in print, here in e-format or here for your Kindle.


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Reivew: 7 Days and 7 Nights by Wendy Wax

Posted June 4, 2008 by Casee in Reviews | 2 Comments

7 Days and 7 Nights

It’s Him vs. Her when romance collides with reality–and everyone is watching….
He says…he’ll have his way with her inside a week. Radio personality Matt Ransom of Atlanta’s raucous, testosterone-fueled Guy Talk is counting on a sure thing when he agrees to be locked up in a tiny apartment for seven days with the competition: the earnest Dr. Olivia Moore. It’s an on-camera publicity stunt and Matt’s determined to come out on top.

She says…she’ll never make the same mistake twice. Though their long-ago affair is a secret, Olivia feels as if her broken heart is on display whenever she crosses paths with her infuriatingly cocky–and undeniably charismatic–nemesis. Now she’s stuck with him in the reality show from hell…or is it heaven? All she has to do is keep a level head, even while every other part of her is spinning dizzily out of control.

Though it’s been eight years, Olivia Moore has never forgotten Matt Ransom or the love that she felt for him. When she moved to Atlanta, she had no idea that she would yet again cross paths with the man that broke her heart so many years before. Though she has put their failed love affair behind her, Olivia is far from prepared when she is forced into a competition with Matt that will have her living with him for 7 days and 7 nights. The winner of the competition will be the one that continues to have a job at the Atlanta radio station they both work at.

Matt has never forgotten Olivia. Determined to show her and prove to himself that she’s no different from any other woman, Matt looks forward to the days and nights that they are together. It’s only when their time begins that Matt remembers the little things about Olivia that so intrigued him to begin with. It doesn’t take him very long to realize that this Olivia is far different from the 20 year old girl whose heart he broke. Olivia is now a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to reach out and grab it. All he has to decide is if he’s man enough to take what she’s offering.

This book was so-so. The love between Olivia and Matt seemed forced, almost clinical. It was almost as if the fact that Olivia was a psychiatrist dictated how she showed Matt her feelings. If that sounds confusing, it’s b/c it is. She was very matter-of-fact with her feelings, which I can appreciate. She was almost too matter-of-fact when it came to dealing w/ Matt and his hang-ups. He had big time hang-ups that were completely relevant. When helping him deal with his issues, it seemed like she was helping him as his therapist rather than as the woman who loved him.

It was a light, fun read. There were moments of humor that I definitely appreciated. The humor as well as the secondary characters were really what made the book.

3 out of 5.

This book is available from Bantam Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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