This episode is sponsored by Mocha Girls Read ​

Welcome to this months #BuddyRead episode. What's a Buddy Read? Co-host Classy and I select a title that we'll either read, listen to, or a combination of both. Afterwards we come together to chat about it on the podcast! This is a candid and spoiler-filled convo.  We talk about this book during a live chat at in the Shelf Addiction Official Facebook group, so you'll want to join us there!
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In this episode, we're discussing The New Husband, by D.J. Palmer. Both Classy and I listened to the audiobook version. Be sure to listen to the After Show on Patreon, because we share who we select our next title!

​Check out previous Buddy Read titles here!

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Format: ebook
Pages: 352
Source: Author
Genre: Women's Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
​Rating: 1 bookmark

Synopsis: Betting on the city of Detroit’s eventual comeback, cousins Addie and Samantha decide to risk it all on an affordable new house and a culinary career that starts with renovating a vintage diner in a depressed area of town. There’s just one little snag in their vision.

Angus, a weary, beloved local, is strongly opposed to his neighborhood’s gentrification—and his concerns reflect the suspicion of the community. Shocked by their reception, Addie and Samantha begin to have second thoughts.

As the long hours, problematic love interests, and underhanded pressures mount, the two women find themselves increasingly at odds, and soon their problems threaten everything they’ve worked for. If they are going to realize their dreams, Addie and Samantha must focus on rebuilding their relationship. But will the neighborhood open their hearts to welcome them home?

*This book was provided by the author in exchange for a honest review

I was really excited to begin The Welcome Home Diner because even though Addy and Sam are cousins, I have a very similar living and business relationship myself...with my sister. Of course I am a big fan and believer of beloved Detroit too. I wanted to have some fun in a book I could immensely relate to. I realize that the author attended University of Michigan so I was sure she would bring a fun perspective of fondness and attention to a special city.

I was hoping the book would bring Detroit to a good light but really it doesn't bring any light. I was hoping to hear about the cousins doing fun things at all the fun places of the city but small landmarks are brought in just for the sake of name dropping. One example the book makes is a character visiting the Heidelberg Project but only in passing as a character lists down the events of their own day, nothing more exciting than a routine trip to the grocery store. There is much talk of how things used to be in past eras. The book is full of extreme exaggerations and in depth detail of every single visible thing. It is distracting and overwhelming away from the story line.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: January 21, 2013
Format: Kindle
Pages: 133
Source: NetGalley, Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Genre: Erotica
Rating: 1 bookmark

Synopsis: You should sleep with a stranger, her best friend whispers in her ear as they take to Vegas for one last pre-wedding fling. Despite her best intentions, when Kasie Fitzgerald enters the casino and sees him, a man whose tailored clothes belied a powerful, even dangerous, presence, she loses herself to the moment. Maybe it’s the dress, much shorter than she’d ever normally wear, or the Scotch, but something makes her give herself over to him more completely than she's ever done with a man before.

It was supposed to be just one night. But right as she’s thinking she wants more, he shows up in her office with an agenda. As the billionaire CEO of a company that’s engaged her PR firm, his demands just became her reality...and he desires so much more than just some attention in the boardroom

Disclaimer: I received this book as a galley courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I really thought about what I wanted to say about this book for a little while because I don't like nor enjoy giving critical reviews.  So what that said, I'll keep this review short and sweet. 

First let me point out that the cover art is really nice and reminds me of other recent erotica covers, and in addition to the synopsis, that did draw me in.

This was a pretty short read.  I guess I'd classify it as a short story.  Sadly, this story in general really wasn't that good.  I found it seriously lacking, the characters didn't have much depth.  The story was a bit shallow also.  Not only that, I have real issues with the main character being a cowardly cheater.  I wish she had grown a pair and dumped that boyfriend that she had no interest in.  The story would have been more likable if maybe the boyfriend was an ex gone crazy instead a decent guy turned into a scorned nut case in the last few pages. I didn't really care for any of the characters, and I couldn't relate. At all. Not to mention the bedroom scenes weren't memorable either.

My advice, pass on this one.

Happy Reading, 
~Tamara

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: October 11, 2011
Format: Kindle
Pages: 416 (Hardcover)
Source: Library Loan
Genre: General Fiction
Review Date: April 2, 2012
Rating: 1 bookmark

This book was sadly a serious let down. I really expected a lot more based on the reviews I read. In addition to the reviews, this author won a Pulitzer, which contributed to my high expectation.  I don’t enjoy giving bad reviews, so I won’t come down too hard on this book, but I must admit I actually fell to sleep twice while trying to read this book! And trust me, this never happens!!!  The boring cover art is a good representation of what you are going to be reading.  In my personal opinion, none of the characters in the book are remotely likable.  They are all really pathetic. Madeline is a sorry, sappy needy young woman.  Mitchell is a lovelorn man who doesn’t get the woman of his dreams and he spends the entire book wishing that he and Madeline would somehow be together.  Leonard, clinically, manically depressed Leonard. That description sums up his character. All in all, the characters are full of teenage angst.  Too much of it.  There is no light at the end of the tunnel for any of them.  Leonard is  the only one who even has a “pass” on how sad his character is and that’s only because he is genuinely sick. In my personal opinion, there is no real character growth for any of these unfortunate characters. How the characters are in the beginning is how they are at the end of the book.

Speaking of the end, there was no real ending. I guess it’s subjective and we are suppose to have all these theories and such about the ending.  I believe this author was writing for Ivy league English majors.  I think his intention was to have so much depth and things for the reader to think about and mull over, which I found profoundly boring.  He really used a lot unnecessary words trying to show off his large vocabulary.  Included are excerpts from other classic “English lit” reads and that was a little too much for me.  To top it off, there is a lot of story line which goes on and on about a lot of authors that I’ve never heard of and have no desire to.  In the beginning, for about the first third of the book, I felt as though I was in my freshman  year at Brown…being forced to read and theorize books along with the characters …again, boring! 

Overall, if you are into these kind of fiction books, go for what you know! You may enjoy it.  Personally, this is not what I would consider fun nor thoughtful reading. It was just a waste of a few days time which I could have been reading something else that I’d actually enjoy.