Guest Post + Givewaway: Woman's Guide To Football by Julie Brannagh

Today on the blog, we have Julie Branagh guest posting to celebrate her new release by AVON, Rushing Amy

The Woman’s Guide to Watching Football

I write football romances. It’s not necessary to know a thing about football to read my books, though. I hope they’re enjoyable for football fans, and for women who prefer to find something else to do while her boyfriend or husband is losing his mind over sudden death overtime for the third time this week. At the same time, why let the men have all the fun every Sunday, Monday, Thursday and some Saturdays from September until February each year?

I saw a blog post a week or so ago by a woman telling other women the best way to watch the Super Bowl. It was full of the usual – what to eat, what to wear, and you don’t need to understand the game to have fun. To say it was frustrating is an understatement. I understand there are women who don’t care for sports, and specifically, football. The last accounting of TV viewers for the Super Bowl broadcast (Go Hawks!) was over 100 million people – in other words, one-third of the United States was watching the game. Even if you’d rather spend your time reading or on Pinterest, it’s always good to know a few of the basics in case you find yourself in a crowd of football fans.

I refuse to relinquish my love for a sport I’ll never play to the guys. I don’t need to wear a pink jersey or to have my husband pat me on the head and send me to the kitchen to get him another beer instead of enjoying the game.  It’s not just short pants and big sweaty guys. It’s strategy and struggle. It’s a game of inches. It’s endless discussions over rules and officiating decisions, and huge community celebrations when your favorite team wins it all. Give it a try, and you might love it, too!

     

Football: The two teams form a line facing each other on the field. Offense (guys with the ball): Trying to score. Defense: Trying to stop the guys with the ball from advancing it. The guys with the ball have four chances (otherwise known as “downs”) to advance the ball ten yards to get another four chances to advance the ball. They’re headed to the end zone, where they will score six points if they get there by running or passing. The guy who scores may do an elaborate dance or spike the ball. There it is.

  

 A simple overview of football can be had at http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/beginnersguidetofootball. If you grasp the basics, you can ask the people watching with you questions, but it’s always a good policy to wait for the commercial.

   

 The NFL rules book is gigantic. I have been watching football for quite some time now. I don’t know all the rules, especially when the rules are constantly changing as well. Neither do most of the guys you’re watching with. Don’t worry if you don’t know everything. 

4 

   It doesn’t matter what you wear. Well, let me amend that: If your significant other is a football fan and loves the 49ers, it might be advisable to wear something other than a Seahawks t-shirt. Same goes for Jets/Giants, Cowboys and anyone else, Patriots and anyone else. The safest to wear: Green Bay. Everyone loves Green Bay. Well, everyone that’s not the Colts or the Bears. Or the Seahawks.

    Food is important, but you are not the only person capable of making sure it’s present or prepared. Order a pizza or send the football fan to the grocery store for ready-made stuff. If you’re having a Super Bowl party, ask people to bring stuff. Being stuck in the kitchen all day is not fun. Being in the midst of the excitement – fun!

   If you’re really, really uninterested in the game, there are compelling (and fascinating) human interest stories on every team. I’m a little biased, but my Seattle Seahawks are full of them. Check out guys like Russell Wilson, Michael Robinson, Derrick Coleman, and Kam Chancellor. You might find yourself rooting for them to succeed, just like I do.

Amy, the heroine of RUSHING AMY, loves football almost as much as her ex-NFL player hero, Matt. Did you ever date a football nut? How did you handle it?

Rushing Amy

A Love and Football Novel

By: Julie Brannagh

Releasing Feb 11^th, 2014

Blurb

Julie Brannagh's sparkling and romantic Love and Football series continues!

For Amy Hamilton, only three Fs matter: Family, Football, and Flowers. It might be nice to find someone to share Forever with, too, but right now she's working double overtime while she gets her flower shop off the ground. The last thing she needs or wants is a distraction … or help, for that matter. 

Especially in the form of gorgeous and aggravatingly arrogant ex-NFL star Matt Stephens.

Matt lives by a playbook—his playbook. He never thought his toughest opponent would come in the form of a stunning florist with a stubborn streak to match his own. Since meeting her in the bar after her sister's wedding, he's known there's something between them. After she refuses—again and again—to go out with him, Matt will do anything to win her heart … But will Amy, who has everything to lose, let the clock run out on the one-yard line?

Buy Links

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rushing-Amy-Love-Football-Novel-ebook/dp/B00DB3AA0S

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rushing-amy-julie-brannagh/1116759069?ean=9780062279729

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/rushing-amy/id660528728?mt=11

Link to Follow Tour: http://tastybooktours.blogspot.com/2014/01/now-booking-tasty-virtual-book-tour-for.html

Author Info

Julie Brannagh has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil. She lives in a small town near Seattle, where she once served as a city council member and owned a yarn shop. She shares her home with a wonderful husband, two uncivilized Maine Coons and a rambunctious chocolate Lab.

Julie hasn't quite achieved the goal of owning a pro football team, so she created a fictional one: The Seattle Sharks. When she's not writing, she's reading, or armchair-quarterbacking her favorite NFL team from the comfort of the family room couch. Julie is a Golden Heart finalist and the author of four contemporary sports romances.

Author Links

http://www.juliebrannagh.com/

https://www.facebook.com/JulieBrannagh

https://twitter.com/julieinduvall

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7127296.Julie_Brannagh

 Win TWO COPIES OF BLITZING EMILY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book News: Real Chicklit For Real Chicks (Boxed Set Collection) by Meredith Schorr

VAL's day is drawing close! 48 hours more. Now all you single chocoholics waiting to buy yourself a treat and parceling it under your name have now got reason to rejoice... THERE'S A BOXED SET TO GO WITH THE CHOCOLATE!!! A real collection of real Chicklit love to be accompanied with your warm, dark, yummy chocolate (or simply sex, as some of you love referring it), thanks to Meredith Schorr and Booktrope:

Real Chick Lit for Real Chicks: The Meredith Schorr Collection

This boxed set brings together three favorites from bestselling chick lit author Meredith Schorr. Blogger Girl follows Kimberly Long, a book blogger asked to review the debut novel of her high school nemesis. In A State of Jane, “good girl” Jane Frank is looking for love, but when all of her dates flake out on her, she decides to turn the tables. In Just Friends With Benefits, Stephanie Cohen is determined to turn the one who got away into “the one” despite advice from a friend not to put all her eggs in one bastard. Meredith Schorr’s characters are believable, relatable,and authentic—women who are easy to root for, despite their flaws. The stories are humorous, heartfelt, and definitely real.

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Chick-Lit-Chicks-ebook/dp/B00I2WKX1E/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1390921512&sr=1-6&keywords=meredith+schorr

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/real-chick-lit-for-real-chicks-meredith-schorr/1118328041?ean=2940148337195

ITunes: Coming Soon.

Author Bio:

A born and bred New Yorker, Meredith Schorr discovered her passion for writing when she began to enjoy drafting work-related emails way more than she was probably supposed to, and was famous among her friends for writing witty birthday cards. After trying her hand writing children’s stories and blogging her personal experiences, Meredith found her calling writing “real” chick lit for real women. When she is not hard at work on her next novel, Meredith spends her days as a trademark paralegal. She is a loyal New York Yankees fan and an avid runner. Meredith is the author of three published novels, Just Friends with Benefits, A State of Janeand BloggerGirl and the full boxed set, Real Chick Lit for Real Chicks: The Meredith Schorr Collection.

Contact me:

web: meredithschorr.com

Twitter: @meredithschorr

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/MeredithSchorrAuthor

Remember, all it takes to make your Valentine's this year is one creep of colour on your cheeks. Don't go solo (with a man), Meredith can be a real please. ;)

Review+Giveaway: Fashionably Dead by Robyn Peterman

Vampyres, Angels, De-moms,Fairies, Prada, all teamed up in this fangtastic chicklit! The one book that would get you baring your canines for excitement!

Blurb:

Vampyres don’t exist. They absolutely do not exist.

At least I didn’t think they did ‘til I tried to quit smoking and ended up Undead. Who in the hell did I screw over in a former life that my getting healthy equates with dead?

Now I’m a Vampyre. Yes, we exist whether we want to or not. However, I have to admit, the perks aren’t bad. My girls no longer jiggle, my ass is higher than a kite and the latest Prada keeps finding its way to my wardrobe. On the downside, I’m stuck with an obscenely profane Guardian Angel who looks like Oprah and a Fairy Fighting Coach who’s teaching me to annihilate like the Terminator.

To complicate matters, my libido has increased to Vampyric proportions and my attraction to a hotter than Satan’s underpants killer rogue Vampyre is not only dangerous . . . it’s possibly deadly. For real dead. Permanent death isn’t on my agenda. Avoiding him is my only option. Of course, since he thinks I’m his, it’s easier said than done. Like THAT’S not enough to deal with, all the other Vampyres think I’m some sort of Chosen One.

Holy Hell, if I’m in charge of saving an entire race of blood suckers, the Undead are in for one hell of a ride.

Astrid has given up smoking and has decided to take charge of her life before she blows it all away into thin air. Therapy seems like the answer to her unhealthy life. But does she know by admitting her problem to a 'therapist', and seeking help to quit, said 'therapist' would steal her breathe away, leaving her dead? Not as if that isn't the sure and fast way to get nicotine-free, but she'd expected better from this therapist than transforming her into a Vampyre (hence leaving her breathless).

Before she knows it, she has her own guardian Angel who happens to be an Oprah lookalike, and a trainer fairy who loves to bare it all.

Who knew the world of Vampyres comes with royalty, fierce sororities, Debutantes, princes, ferocious battles, amazing sex and killer undead orgasms!

Oh, and for some reason all the Vampyres think Astrid is sort of special, some chosen one... when she knows the only special in her life are the seniors she teaches art who are not shy to translate their sexual preferences into their pieces.

It's not as if she doesn't have her own share of drama when her mum announces her death date, her guardian angel keeps her telly on the Jerry Springer and a Vampyre rogue, or prince or whatever he really is wants to get into her pants! Playing hard-to-get seems like the best thing, but channeling your stubborn inner slut into doing something productive (like saving the world) only seems like the sure way to keep your panties on.

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FUNNIEST EXCERPT

It was so delicious, like rich dark chocolate, so smooth, so warm, so yummy. What was this? The pain subsided slowly and I realized I was curled up in I'm-Not-Oprah's lap with my teeth embedded in her neck. She was rocking me like a baby.

I removed what I'm fairly sure was my fangs from Oprah's neck. "What am I doing?" I calmly asked.

She looked down at me and smiled. Holy Cow, she looked like Oprah. "Drinking."

"Drinking what?" I inquired politely.

"O negative."

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IT DIDN'T WORK WITH ROBYN PETERMAN! Everyone who follows my 'kooky' blog, as people refer it, know when I'm taking on an author twice I do not read the blurb to their next book. I just jump into it and prepare to be entertained. But I could give no such treatment to Robyn. Why? Simple. Robyn's works are fantastic from BLURB to finish! She's the kind of writer who grabs you with her blurb, reels you in with Amazon's ten-percent excerpt and before you can stop yourself, it's ONE CLICK for you! You came in to be a snob over what author to purchase, and then, bam! Robyn puts you in a trance that gets you clicking the 'Add To Cart' button. I want to tell you all, you wouldn't be the only one. There's a whole Bigfoot community-like who you could relate your similar experience with.

Anyway, to my review!

Robyn is a master of brilliantly unique and complicated story-lines. While you may argue this is similar to Mary Janice's Undead series, taking a nose-dive into this proves you completely wrong. I admired Robyn's How Hard Can It Be plot, I was expecting her next book to be something that tows that line and she wowed my pants off me. I love it when authors do that ('cause most of my pants do not fit that well)—★

Now, again, people who know me and this blog, know I dread anything paranormal. It is beyond me that I really enjoyed something outta-normal. Dialogues are witty, humorous and sometimes bordering on plain wacky. I love that Robyn took my notion of Vampyres being so last season and threw it out the window by adding lots of classiness you would hardly find in Vampyre fiction. It's Vampyre (Diaries) with a hint of some Gossip Girl in there. This book didn't only have the wow factor, it did have the RAAR(!) factor too—★★

Astrid. I loved, loved her! Can you blame me? She might have put me in a trance too. But that's just it with all Robyn's leads (vampire or mortal). On their covers they look all sassy and have that I-Can-Do-It-All aura, but when you begin flipping the the pages, you'd realize they are scared shitless (like you! [sometimes]), they are Prada whores (who isn't?), their sense of humor is super-high-larious (most of us would love to think that about ourselves) and they haven't really made specific meaning with their lives and are not all sexy, successful moguls. Pure entertainment! —★★★

Speaking of entertainment, you wouldn't read this book without falling for all the other characters. Maybe you wouldn't be rolling all over, like I did, laughing your ass off. But you would love Gemma the bestie, another Prada whore who wouldn't want all vampyres on her doorstep (with their fav meals) just because her blood has the power to taste like the food she ingests. There's also Pam, the guardian angel who would get you flinching at most of her cusses (even when you aren't the flinching type) and loves Jerry Springer drama. The Kev, a fairy whose taste in fashion ranges from nudity to Tutus and Muumuus, despite the fact that guys stopped wearing that before the seventies (and nothing could go wrong than the seventies!). Venus—sorority sister and vampyre, Paris—gothic teenager and Vampyre, Charlie—assgrabbing senior citizen, Martha and Jane—old, cantankerous conservatives who for some reason think they deserve slots on American Idol and not seats doing art with wacky Astrid, Brad Pitt—the sleazy adultering solicitor whose arrival in Kentucky caused media from the world to gather only to find out he wasn't the famous one but the one who wouldn't hesitate dedicating a poem to Astrid's butt, Angelina Jenkins—battling with her husband so her family doesn't change their last name to Jolie, Petra—the mom who can show much affection towards the century's ugliest demon king, but why not the same for her daughter? Your favorite character would be Ethan, not because he shags like someone five hundred and two (the older the merrier), you'd probably be guffawing anytime he's seething about Astrid doing everything (with him) but bending to his will. All these characters and so, so much more made me really, really want this book! —★★★★

You shouldn't be told you would split your jaw through laughter when you pick up a Robyn Peterman title. You shouldn't also be told there are so many OMG moments that might make you create a gash on your forehead (mine is spotless, Thank you, all went well after a little knitting). There are much too many revelations that harness the plot together, sprout up relations you could never guess existed and made this book the star that it was—★★★★★

It's the one book that would get you believing just about anything to the point of questioning your sanity (thanks to the element of engaging that seems to be an attribute in all Robyn's writings). At a point, I had to shake myself back to reality to actually believe Sprites weren't such ass-grabbing pervs (based on my very limited encounter with them).

There are a few authors I hail 'My Kind Of Girl', Robyn happens to be one of them. Definitely can't wait to read Fashionably Dead Down Under!

My rating: Obviously...

Fashionably Dead is available on Amazon.

Hold your horses, just before you run out to get this and all Robyn's works (which you should), she's giving away...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I recommend this title to anyone who wants Chicklit that's fangtastic! Anyone who wants something with a super-hilarious lead should get this! Anyone who'd just love a feel of what major Vampyre sex they are missing out on being mere mortal should also throw this into their cart!

My work not done. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Guest Post Plus Giveaway : Jamie Baywood (Author Of Getting Rooted In New Zealand)

Today, we have Jamie Baywood recounting her experiences in New Zealand and her inspiration to penning her memorable debut:  

It was always my dream to live abroad when I was growing up in California.  I had bad dating experiences in California and read in a New Zealand tour book that the country’s population at 100,000 fewer men than women.  I wanted to have some me time and an adventure. New Zealand seemed like a good place to do so. Although I intended to have a solo adventure I ended up meeting my husband a Scottish man in New Zealand. 

I consider myself an accidental author. I didn’t go to New Zealand with the intentions of writing a book about my experiences there. I had funny experiences that I had trouble believing were true. I wrote the stories down to stay sane. I wrote situations down that were happening around me and shared them with friends. The stories made people laugh so I decided to organize the stories into a book and publish in the hopes to make others laugh too.

One of the first people I meet was Colin Mathura-Jeffree from New Zealand’s Next Top Model. I had no idea who he was or that he was on TV when I meet him. He is friends with my former flatmate. We had a steep staircase that I kept falling down. Colin taught me to walk like a model so I wouldn’t fall down the stairs. 

In New Zealand, I had a lot of culture shock.  One of the most memorable moments was learning the meaning of the Kiwi slang word “rooted.” One night I was brushing my teeth with my flatmate and I said, ‘I’m really excited to live in this house because I have been travelling a lot and I just need to settle down, stop traveling and get rooted’. He was choking on his toothbrush and asked me if I knew what that meant because it had a completely different meaning New Zealand than it does in the States.

I had the opportunity to write and perform for Thomas Sainsbury the most prolific playwright in New Zealand. I performed a monologue about my jobs in the Basement Theatre in Auckland.  The funny thing about that experience was Tom kept me separated from the other performers until it was time to perform. I was under the impression that all the performers were foreigners giving their experiences in New Zealand.  All of the other performers were professional actors telling stories that weren’t their own. At first I was mortified, but the audience seemed to enjoy my “performance,” laughing their way through my monologue. After the shows we would go out and mingle with the audience. People would ask me how long I had been acting. I would tell them, “I wasn’t acting; I have to go to work tomorrow and sit next to the girl wearing her dead dog’s collar around her neck.” 

I love making people laugh more than anything else. I feel very grateful when readers understand my sense of humor. I plan to divide my books by the countries I’ve lived in. My next book will be about attempting to settle in Scotland. 

 About the book Getting Rooted in New Zealand:

Craving change and lacking logic, at 26, Jamie, a cute and quirky Californian, impulsively moves to New Zealand to avoid dating after reading that the country's population has 100,000 fewer men. In her journal, she captures a hysterically honest look at herself, her past and her new wonderfully weird world filled with curious characters and slapstick situations in unbelievably bizarre jobs. It takes a zany jaunt to the end of the Earth and a serendipitous meeting with a fellow traveler before Jamie learns what it really means to get rooted.

Read my 5 star review of Getting Rooted In New Zealand and Enter to win one of the two copies Jamie Baywood is giving away a Rafflecopter giveaway .

About the author Jamie Baywood:

Jamie Baywood grew up in Petaluma, California. In 2010, she made the most impulsive decision of her life by moving to New Zealand. Getting Rooted in New Zealand is her first book about her experiences living there. Jamie is now married and living happily ever after in the United Kingdom. She is working on her second book.

Getting Rooted in New Zealand is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482601907

Jamie Baywood can be followed on the following sites:

Facebook.com/jamiebaywood
Twitter.com/JamieBaywood
Pinterest.com/jamiebaywood
Goodreads.com/author/show/7069448.Jamie_Baywood
Amazon.com/author/jamiebaywood
uk.linkedin.com/pub/jamie-baywood/87/32a/42b/