Archive for March 6, 2017

iread-website-new-logo

Dreaming Sophia

Because Dreaming Is An Art

by Melissa Muldoon

Genre:Contemporary Women’s Fiction

c8df8-add2bto2bgoodreads2bblack

Synopsis

Dreaming Sophia is a magical look into Italy, language, art, and culture. It is a story about turning dreams into reality and learning to walk the fine line between fact and fantasy. When tragedy strikes, Sophia finds herself alone in the world, without direction and fearful of loving again. With only her vivid imagination to guide her, she begins a journey that will take her from the vineyards in Sonoma, California to a grad school in Philadelphia and, eventually, to Italy: Florence, Lucca, Rome, Verona, Venice, and Val d’Orcia.

​Through dreamlike encounters, Sophia meets Italian personalities—princes, poets, duchesses, artists, and film stars— who give her advice to help put her life back together. Following a path that takes her from grief to joy, she discovers the source of her creativity and learns to love again, turning her dreams into reality.

Buy the Book:

Amazon – print

Amazon / Kindle – ebook

Create Space

I-tunes – Apple Store-ebook

Barnes & Noble – ebook

Inktera-ebook

Author Melissa Muldoon

Dreaming Sophia Melissa Muldoon

Melissa Muldoon is the Studentessa Matta-the crazy linguist! In Italian, “matta” means “crazy” or “impassioned”. Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and art history in Florence.

Melissa promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog, Studentessa Matta (studentessamatta.com). Melissa began the Matta blog to improve her command of the language and to connect with other language learners. It has since grown to include a podcast, “Tutti Matti per l’Italiano” and the Studentessa Matta YouTube channel. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Tours, which she co-leads with Italian partners in Italy.

Dreaming Sophia is Melissa’s first novel. It is a fanciful look at art history and Italian language and culture, but it is also the culmination of personal stories and insights resulting from her experiences living in Italy, as well as her involvement and familiarity with the Italian language, painting, and art history.

As a student, Melissa lived in Florence with an Italian family. She studied art history and painting and took beginner Italian classes. When she returned home, she threw away her Italian dictionary, assuming she’d never need it again but after launching a successful design career and starting a family, she realized something was missing in her life. That “thing” was the connection she had made with Italy and the friends who live there. Living in Florence was indeed a life-changing event! Wanting to reconnect with Italy, she decided to start learning the language again from scratch. As if indeed possessed by an Italian muse, she bought a new Italian dictionary and began her journey to fluency-a path that has led her back to Italy many times and enriched her life in countless ways.

Now, many dictionaries and grammar books later, she dedicates her time to promoting Italian language studies, further travels in Italy, and sharing her stories and insights about Italy with others. When Melissa is not traveling in Italy, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is married and has three boys and two beagles.

Melissa designed and illustrated the cover art for Dreaming Sophia. She also designed the Dreaming Sophia website and created the character illustrations that can be found in the book and on the Dreaming Sophia websites.

Connect with the Author:

Website  ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Youtube ~ Pinterest

Dreaming Sophia Melissa Muldoon and Sophia Loren

~~~~~

giveaway photo: Giveaway Banner for 42nd giveaway.png

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~~~~~

Follow The Tour

Feb 20 – Essentially Italian – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 20 – Leigh Anderson Romance – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 20 – Teresa Edmond-Sargeant – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 21 – Books, Dreams, Life – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 21 – Mystery Suspense Reviews – book spotlight

Feb 21 – Library of Clean Reads – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 22 – BookRoom Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 22 – Puddletown Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 22 – Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’ – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 23 – Paulette’s Papers – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 23 – Book Lover in Florida – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 24 – Celticlady’s Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 24 – T’s Stuff – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 24 – Fabulous and Brunette – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 27 – A Mama’s Corner of the World – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 27 – StoreyBook Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 27 – Carole’s Book Corner – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 28 – 100 pages a day – book spotlight / giveaway

Feb 28 – Kristin’s Novel Cafe – book spotlight

March 1 – Hall Ways – book spotlight / giveaway

March 1 – Deal Sharing Aunt – book spotlight / giveaway

March 2 – Zerina Blossom’s Books – book spotlight / giveaway

March 2 – Suko’s Notebook – book spotlight

March 3 – Haddie’s Haven – book spotlight / giveaway

March 3 – Monica Cesarato – book spotlight / giveaway

March 6 – My Journey Back – book spotlight / giveaway

March 6 – A Holland Reads – book spotlight / giveaway

March 6 – FUONLYKNEW – book spotlight / giveaway

March 7 – The Book Drealms – A Book Addict’s Travelogue – spotlight / giveaway

March 7 – A Soccer Mom’s Book Blog – book spotlight / giveaway

March 7 – Turning the Pages – book spotlight / giveaway

March 8 – Words And Peace – book spotlight / giveaway

March 9 – Cheryl’s Book Nook – book spotlight / giveaway

March 9 – Travelling Through Words – book spotlight

March 10 – Bound 2 Escape – book spotlight / giveaway

March 10 – Jessica Cassidy – book spotlight / giveaway

~~~~~

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE

For a list of free eBooks go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE

Welcome to My Monday Minis Reviews where I share short reviews of books I’ve read. For today I’ll be sharing my thoughts about Sweet lake by Christine Nolfi, the first book in the Sweet Lake Series.

Sweet Lake

Sweet Lake #1

by Christine Nolfi

31340913

Genre: Romance

c8df8-add2bto2bgoodreads2bblack

My Review

There’s something about stories that are written around inns and bed & breakfasts that draws me in. I like to read about the daily running of them and the guests and other characters that reside there.

There’s no lack of colorful characters at the Wayfair Inn. There’s Linnie, daughter and owner of the inn, struggling to bring it back to it’s former glory after her black sheep of a brother, Freddy, nearly put it in bankruptcy. She’s tough in business but soft where the human condition figures into things.

You’ve got her two close friends, Jada and Cat, who constantly pull Linnie’s head out of the sand when she tries to hide from confrontations and personal decisions. Friends like that are handy indeed.

There’s the Sweet Lake Sirens. Among my favorites. A group of older ladies who mind the P’s and Q’s of everyone else. They remind of the Ya Ya Sisterhood and such a hoot.

And there’s local attorney and hottie, Daniel Kittering. He’s carried a torch for Linnie for a long time and things are starting to heat up.

Plus, now Freddy is back in town. So you can imagine the tongues wagging as everyone wonders what the devil he could want. He’s got some nerve as he’s done things to make most everyone angry with him.

I’m very much into character driven stories and this book has a plethora to engage with. And the author has you wishing for happiness for all, even the brother who lost his way.

It all flows fast and furious, keeping the reader immersed in the story, eager for the conclusion, and crossing fingers for a happy ending.

An enjoyable read and great beginning to a fun series. This is the perfect read to enjoy at the beach, or any time, anywhere.

5  Stars

~~~~~

Synopsis

Linnie Wayfair knows just how many people are counting on her. But knowing doesn’t make doing any easier.

Everyone in Sweet Lake, Ohio, wants her to muster all her business sense and return the Wayfair Inn to its former glory. Her parents hope she’ll forgive her scoundrel of a brother and reconcile the family. The eccentric Sweet Lake Sirens want her to open the inn—and her heart—to new possibilities. And her hilarious lifelong friends Jada and Cat are dropping none-too-subtle hints for her to ignite a romance with Daniel Kettering, the sexy attorney who’s been pining for her for years…

Now a shocking turn of events will open old wounds and upend the world Linnie has carefully built. She has to make changes quickly—and the results, though not entirely what she expected, might be what she’s been yearning for all along.

AMAZON

~~~~~

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE