The Sullivans Box Set (Books 1-3) VBT

Blurb:

More than 6 million readers have already fallen in love with the Sullivans! Now get ready to meet your new favorite family in Bella Andre's New York Times and USA Today bestselling contemporary romances with the first three books in the #1 hit series.

"Not since Nora Roberts has anyone been able to write a big family romance series with every book as good as the last! Bella Andre never disappoints!" Revolving Bookcase Reviews

THE LOOK OF LOVE

Chloe Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country road straight into a ditch, she's convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he?

As a successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he's home in San Francisco, one of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase thinks his life is great just as it is--until the night he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has he never met anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes she has much bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, he is willing to move mountains to love--and protect--her, but will she let him?

FROM THIS MOMENT ON

For thirty-six years, Marcus Sullivan has been the responsible older brother, stepping in to take care of his seven siblings after their father died when they were children. But when the perfectly ordered future he's planned for himself turns out to be nothing but a lie, Marcus needs one reckless night to shake free from it all.

Nicola Harding is known throughout the world by only one name - Nico - for her catchy, sensual pop songs. Only, what no one knows about the twenty-five year old singer is that her sex-kitten image is totally false. After a terrible betrayal by a man who loved fame far more than he ever loved her, she vows not to let anyone else get close enough to find out who she really is...or hurt her again. Especially not the gorgeous stranger she meets at a nightclub, even though the hunger - and the sinful promises - in his dark eyes make her want to spill all her secrets.

CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE

Gabe Sullivan risks his life every day as a firefighter in San Francisco. But after learning a brutal lesson about professional boundaries, he knows better than to risk his heart to his fire victims ever again. Especially the brave mother and daughter he saved from a deadly apartment fire...and can't stop thinking about.

Megan Harris knows she owes the heroic firefighter everything for running into a burning building to save her and her seven-year-old daughter. Everything except her heart. Because after losing her navy pilot husband five years ago, she has vowed to never suffer through loving - and losing - a man with a dangerous job again.

Excerpt from THE LOOK OF LOVE:

Chase almost missed the flickering light off on the right side of the two-lane country road. In the past thirty minutes, he hadn’t passed a single car, because on a night like this, most sane Californians—who didn’t know the first thing about driving safely in inclement weather—stayed home.

Knowing better than to slam on the brakes—he wouldn’t be able to help whomever was stranded on the side of the road if he ended up stuck in the muddy ditch right next to them—Chase slowed down enough to see that there was definitely a vehicle stuck in the ditch.

He turned his brights on to see better in the pouring rain and realized there was a person walking along the edge of the road about a hundred yards up ahead. Obviously hearing his car approach, she turned to face him and he could see her long wet hair whipping around her shoulders in his headlights.

Wondering why she wasn’t just sitting in her car, dry and warm, calling Triple A and waiting for them to come save her, he pulled over to the edge of his lane and got out to try and help her. She was shivering as she watched him approach.

"Are you hurt?"

She covered her cheek with one hand, but shook her head. "No."

He had to move closer to hear her over the sound of the water hitting the pavement in what were rapidly becoming hailstones. Even though he’d turned his headlights off, as his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, he was able to get a better look at her face.

Something inside of Chase’s chest clenched tight.

Despite the long, dark hair plastered to her head and chest, regardless of the fact that looking like a drowned rat wasn’t too far off the descriptive mark, her beauty stunned him.

In an instant, his photographer’s eye cataloged her features. Her mouth was a little too big, her eyes a little too wide-set on her face. She wasn’t even close to model thin, but given the way her T-shirt and jeans stuck to her skin, he could see that she wore her lush curves well. In the dark he couldn’t judge the exact color of her hair, but it looked like silk, perfectly smooth and straight where it lay over her breasts.

It wasn’t until Chase heard her say, "My car is definitely hurt, though," that he realized he had completely lost the thread of what he’d come out here to do.

Knowing he’d been drinking her in like he was dying of thirst, he worked to recover his balance. He could already see he’d been right about her car. It didn’t take a mechanic like his brother, Zach, who owned an auto shop—more like forty, but Chase had stopped counting years ago—to see that her shitty hatchback was borderline totaled. Even if the front bumper wasn’t half smashed to pieces by the white farm fence she’d slid into, her bald tires weren’t going to get any traction on the mud. Not tonight, anyway.

If her car had been in a less precarious situation, he probably would have sent her to hang out  in her car while he took care of getting it unstuck. But one of her back tires was hanging precariously over the edge of the ditch.

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Get in my car. We can wait there for a tow truck." He was vaguely aware of his words coming out like an order, but the hail was starting to sting, damn it. Both of them needed to get out of the rain before they froze.

But the woman didn’t move. Instead, she gave him a look that said he was a complete and utter nut-job.

"I’m not getting into your car."

Realizing just how frightening it must be for a lone woman to end up stuck and alone in the middle of a dark road, Chase took a step back from her. He had to speak loudly enough for her to hear him over the hail.

"I’m not going to attack you. I swear I won’t do anything to hurt you."

She all but flinched at the word attack and Chase’s radar started buzzing. He’d never been a magnet for troubled women, wasn’t the kind of guy who thrived on fixing wounded birds. But living with two sisters for so many years meant he could always tell when something was up.

And something was definitely up with this woman, beyond the fact that her car was half-stuck in a muddy ditch.

Wanting to make her feel safe, he held his hands up. "I swear on my father’s grave, I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay to get into my car." When she didn’t immediately say no again, he pressed his advantage with, "I just want to help you." And he did. More than it made sense to want to help a stranger. "Please," he said. "Let me help you."

She stared at him for a long moment, hail hammering between them, around them, onto them. Chase found himself holding his breath, waiting for her decision. It shouldn’t matter to him what she decided.

But, for some strange reason, it did.

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Author Bio and Links:

Bella Andre is the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of "The Sullivans", "The Maverick Billionaires", "The Morrisons", and the NYT bestselling "Four Weddings and a Fiasco" sweet romance series written as Lucy Kevin.

Having sold more than 6 million books, Bella Andre's novels have been #1 bestsellers around the world and have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists 32 times. She has been the #1 Ranked Author at Amazon (on a top 10 list that included Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, James Patterson and Steven King), and Publishers Weekly named Oak Press (the publishing company she created to publish her own books) the Fastest-Growing Independent Publisher in the US. After signing a groundbreaking 7-figure print-only deal with Harlequin MIRA, Bella's "The Sullivans" series is being released in paperback in the US, Canada, and Australia.

Known for "sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance" (Publishers Weekly), her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine "Red Hot Reads" twice and have been translated into ten languages. Winner of the Award of Excellence, The Washington Post called her "One of the top writers in America" and she has been featured by Entertainment Weekly, NPR, USA Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and TIME Magazine. A graduate of Stanford University, she has given keynote speeches at publishing conferences from Copenhagen to Berlin to San Francisco, including a standing-room-only keynote at Book Expo America in New York City.

If not behind her computer, you can find her reading her favorite authors, hiking, swimming or laughing. Married with two children, Bella splits her time between the Northern California wine country and a 100 year old log cabin in the Adirondacks.

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Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Missing Scarab Review Tour

Blurb:

Barnabas Tew is a private detective struggling to make a go of it in Victorian London. Fearing that he is not as clever as he had hoped to be, he is riddled with anxiety and plagued by a lack of confidence brought on in no small part by his failure to prevent the untimely deaths of several of his clients. Matters only get worse when Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, is referred to Barnabas by a former client (who perished in a terribly unfortunate incident which was almost certainly not Barnabas’ fault). Anubis sends for Barnabas (in a most uncivilized manner) and tells him that the scarab beetle in charge of rolling the sun across the sky every day has been kidnapped, and perhaps dismembered entirely. The land of the dead is in chaos, which will soon spill over into the land of the living if Barnabas (together with his trusty assistant, Wilfred) cannot set matters to right. Pulled from his safe and predictable (if unremarkable) life in Marylebone, Barnabas must match his wits against the capricious and dangerous Egyptian gods in order to unravel the mystery of the missing beetle and thereby save the world.

Excerpt:

“Perhaps there’s been a mistake,” he said. “Maybe I’m not really dead. Is there someone I could talk to? Someone who could straighten out this mess?”

“Sorry,” said Anti. “But this is how it is. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t dead.”

“I just would have thought that dying would be, well, more noticeable,” said Barnabas sadly.

“So does everyone,” said Anti. “Almost no one really believes they are dead at first. And it must be especially hard for you, to have gone in such a, well, an unexpected way.”

My Review:
4.5 stars

Going into this story, I wasn't sure what to expect, especially given the colorful blurb and considering that I don't usually read historical books. However, I'm glad I read this mystery as it was a thrilling, entertaining read.

The mystery was suspenseful and intriguing, so much so that I couldn't put this book down. In addition to the mystery, there was much humor woven in, which made the story even more enjoyable. And on top of all that, I was surprised at the detail put into this story. I could definitely see the time and effort the author put into the historical details and in the mystery, which made the story great.

However, my favorite part of the story was the characters. They were all interesting, fleshed out characters with their own fun quirks. My favorite was Barnabas, as I couldn't help but love him and his quirks, even if he is a bit accident prone (or causing). In addition, the banter between Barnabas and Wilfred was amazing and hysterical, which just added to the characters

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

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Author Bio and Links:

Columbkill Noonan has an M.S. in Biology (she has, in turn, been a field biologist, an environmental compliance inspector, and a lecturer of Anatomy and Physiology).

When she's not teaching or writing, she can usually be found riding her rescue horse, Mittens, practicing yoga (on the ground, in an aerial silk, on a SUP board, and sometimes even on Mittens), or spending far too much time at the local organic, vegan market.

To keep up with Columbkill, visit her blog, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

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Love on the Risky Side Book Blast

Blurb:

Falsely accused of the murder of her best friend, Kayla Jenkins is on the run for her life. She ends up lost in dark, snowy woods off some backcountry road in the middle of nowhere. Frightened and colder than she’s ever been in her life, she almost thinks she’s hallucinating when a warrior on a white steed saves her.

In all his years as the sheriff of Peak Town, Colorado, Jake Ryder has never come across a half-frozen woman alone in the woods. She’s terrified…and lying to him, yet something about her calls to him on a primal level.

Even with her trust of law enforcement lower than the harsh temperature, Kayla finds it difficult to keep her secrets hidden from the kind and far too handsome sheriff. But as her faith in Ryder grows, she not only risks the real murderer finding her, but losing the one thing she has searched for her whole life and only just found…love.

Excerpt:

“My name is Jake Ryder, but most folks call me Ryder.” When she didn’t return the introduction, he continued. “Can I ask how you came to be all the way out here in the middle of the night?”

Giving a guarded glance from the horse back to him, she simply said, “Got lost.”

And they say women were chatty. Hell, he had a pet parrot as a kid that talked more than this woman. Not a problem. As sheriff, he was used to interrogating uncooperative suspects. Not that she was a suspect, yet.

“Got lost...” He looked her over. Big, red, winter coat, long dark slacks and—were those high heels? “…shopping?”

Honestly, who the hell wears heels in the woods?

She scowled, wrapping her arms around herself. “My car ran off the road. I—I got out to find help. Wandered off the road and got lost.”

Something about her story smelled like Wind Chaser’s stall after feeding time. “Why didn’t you call Triple A?”

Her gaze darted to the side. “Cell died.”

Yeah, and I’m the King of England.

“You need a ride back to your car?”

Her eyes widened. “On that thing?”

“Her name is Wind Chaser, and yes. Did you think I had a car hidden in the trees?”

Her jaw clenched at his sarcasm. Well, excuse him. It was dark, cold, and the last thing he wanted to do was be out here trying to pull a story out of Ms. Lying-Crazy-Lady.

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Author Bio and Links:

RWA® Golden Heart® Nominated author Mariah Ankenman began writing at the tender age of five. Her first book “George and the Green Glob” received high praise from her mother. Many years, and green glob stories later, Mariah received a playwriting degree from the University of Wyoming. After a few years in Hollywood, working in “the biz,” she came home to the beautiful Rocky Mountains. When she’s not writing Mariah loves to read, crochet, and play her ukulele. She loves to hear from readers.

Website: www.mariahankenman.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mariahkenmanauthor/

Twitter: @MAsBooks

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Dinner Conversations Blog Tour

Blurb:

“You are going to LAUGH! You are going to then wonder if these conversations actually happened. You are going to wonder what kind of guy would actually say these things to his family.”

The answer is simple—yes, these conversations did actually happen. They occurred over a period of roughly 5 years, mainly at my dinner table.  I took them verbatim and posted them on Facebook so that all my friends could get a good laugh.

I must be honest with you, some of you will are going to laugh and say things like “…that sounds like something I would say or want to say” others are going to think that I am a horrible parent.  I am ok with either thought process.

What I hope is that after laughing, scratching your head and wondering what is wrong with Jay Reid, you realize that you need to create more of your own Dinner Conversations.  

Please join me @ www.Facebook.com/DinnerConversations to read more and post your own.” 

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Excerpt:

Taxes

Kids

"You have to pay how much in taxes?!?"

Jay

"Yep, half or more of my money goes to pay taxes, the rest goes to pay for you guys. I have almost nothing left over."

  

Kids

"That's crazy!”

Jay

"I agree, but I am stuck with all of you."

Author Bio:

Jason Reid is an entrepreneur by trade and a dad by passion. He currently lives in Murrieta, California with his wonderful wife and amazing four children. Over the years he has written numerous business books, a novel, and children’s The Protector Bug book series.

His latest book is the humor/family/parenting book, DinnerConversations.

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Riverside Lane NBtM

Blurb:

After arranging a house swap with a debonair antiques dealer, a darkly handsome American named Luca Tempesta arrives in a quaint English village. Tempesta, who claims to run a detective agency in Los Angeles, is supposedly on holiday – but the inhabitants of the village are unconvinced.

Yet, as they attempt to solve the mystery of the stranger in their midst, it gradually transpires that there are more than enough secrets to go around in the village itself, harboured by the local MP and his uptight, ambitious wife; the has-been former game show host; the respectable couple with the jailbird son; the hometown journalist, striving for a scoop that will rescue her from debt; and so on. The place is revealed as a labyrinth of deception masquerading as a picture-postcard hamlet; tension begins to mount in between the dinner parties and evenings at the pub, and soon culminates in an unexpected death.

Behind perfect privets and brightly painted front doors, the lives of Riverside Lane’s residents slowly unravel. Tempesta, guarding his secrets with a vengeance, is suddenly threatened with exposure by the elderly religious zealot Ivy Midwinter, whose own past involved keeping professional confidences. When she challenges him in church, she learns that Tempesta will stop at nothing to protect his privacy ...

Set against the exquisite backdrop of a gastronomic village by the Thames, Riverside Lane is a tautly paced page-turner that also gently satirises middle- class English manners: the upstanding denizens of the village watch and whisper behind a mask of English hauteur, whilst their own fragile lives come undone.

Excerpt:

Ivy bolted the door behind the journalist. Returning to her desk, she locked the drawer and squeezed her eyes shut. “The blind will see, and those who see will become blind,” she intoned, blinking furiously to dispel the strange dots that had started presenting themselves in her vision. They were becoming more frequent; Ivy knew she should visit an ophthalmologist. She hoped it was not un-Christian, but the thought of being unable to read her beloved sheet music upset her more deeply than any of the memories from her past. The Victorian marble clock, which comforted her hourly with its sweet Handel music, proclaimed that there was just enough time to deliver the cheque to the bank and get back to the Village for Evensong.

Standing at the bus stop with the melodious clock chimes still echoing softly in her head, Ivy caught sight of Luca Tempesta walking through the churchyard. Handel, she thought, had been sent to law school by his father, just like this American. The former had abandoned his studies and blessed mankind with the “Hallelujah” chorus; the latter, according to Ivy’s preliminary investigations, had abandoned his to set up a private-detective firm; then, some years later, he had apparently disappeared from God’s Earth without a trace. Except he had not disappeared. He was here in the Village, living in Clive’s house, next door to Frank, smoking Russian cigarettes. And Ivy Midwinter planned to find out why.

Ginger Black – you’re hired!

By Gaynor Pengelly

Little did I know when I set out to write Riverside Lane with Julia Thum that we would end up feeling as if we’d taken part in the hit TV series, The Apprentice.

The ink was barely dry on ‘The End’, when we found ourselves caught up in a whirlwind of Apprentice-style challenges that tested every aspect of our business metal.

Sales, marketing, design, teamwork, negotiation – you name it, we’ve done it to secure the coveted first prize of a publishing deal. Writing an 85000-word novel was a ‘walk in the park’ by comparison.

During our three-year writing odyssey, in which we breathed life into a fictitious community set in the culinary village of Bray on Thames (home to The Waterside Inn and The Fat Duck), Julia and I metamorphosed from happy-go-lucky writers to ambitious, business-savvy entrepreneurs.

Julia and I knew that if we had the tenacity to write Riverside Lane in snatched hours before our families awoke and late into the night after a busy working day, we had the grit and determination to persevere.

So, instead of the long literary lunches we had dreamed about, days were spent designing websites, getting to grips with social media and masterminding PR strategies and press campaigns.

Having set up, run and sold a successful PR business, Julia had a clear advantage over me in the entrepreneurial stakes.  Blessed with bags of energy, an analytical mind and a genius for organisation, she has all the hallmarks of a natural born leader.   There is little doubt she would have been singled her out as the ‘one to watch’ from the get-go.

My approach to enterprise is slightly more haphazard. As my co-author sat surrounded by state of the art technology, tip-tapping genius campaigns and strategies on her high-end Apple Mac, my approach was to scrawl on endless pieces of paper and pluck ideas out of the air.

But while we are polls apart on business challenges, like our writing collaboration, a healthy dose of teamwork and the merging of two different styles – has made it happen.

Our first Apprentice style challenge was to create the Ginger Black website.  Something Julia, who has a propensity for giving everything a go with gusto, quickly abandoned when it was dismissed with howls of mirth from our nearest and dearest.

Luckily, our web-designer, Karl Salter turned out to be a digital marketing guru and taught us how to treat Riverside Lane as a commercial product, rather than a labour of love.

Getting to grips with social media was a learning curve, but we soon discovered the value of tweeting and writing blogs to raise digital awareness of the Ginger Black brand and promote Riverside Lane. Soon our website had more than 700 people signed to its mailing list, which proved a powerful calling card when we approached independent book publishers.

Within weeks, Ginger Black had several offers on the table, allowing us the luxury of signing to Momentum Books, a small team of literary giants whose enthusiasm for Riverside Lane has made the blood, sweat and toil of our business challenges worth every minute.

The days of rattling out a thrilling story and signing to a literary agent have long gone.  Today’s authors must juggle creativity with entrepreneurial flair, good PR and marketing skills, as well as a thorough understanding of social media are essential skillsets.

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Author Bio and Links:

Ginger Black is a writing partnership between Gaynor Pengelly and Julia Thum.

JULIA THUM

Julia left Somerset for London at 16. She founded & ran her own consumer P R agency representing a range of international brands including Braun, Molton Brown, Clairol & Kleenex. After selling the business she trained as a psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders & hosted a phone-in show on Radio Luxembourg.

Julia writes bespoke literature & articles for private clients and visits secondary schools & prisons representing two national charities in providing emotional support to pupils & inmates. A keen kayaker and a passionate cook, she lives in Bray-on-Thames with her husband Nicolas and their four children.

GAYNOR PENGELLY

Gaynor has worked as a national newspaper correspondent for more than twenty years, interviewing everyone from the great and the good to extraordinary people in ordinary lives. The rich variety of her subject matter and their circumstances has given her a rare insight into human nature and the challenges many people face.

Gaynor's great loves include sitting in pavement cafes watching the world go by, National Trust and English Heritage and hiking across the windswept Yorkshire moors. She lives in Bray-on-Thames with her husband Jonathan and their son, Freddie James.

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Beautiful Mess VBT

Blurb:

A fallen star. Four Los Angeles misfits.
And the Marilyn Monroe you only thought you knew.

Del Corwyn is an aging relic. An actor who advanced from errand boy to Academy Award nominee, Del kept company with the elite of Hollywood’s golden era and shared a close friendship with Marilyn Monroe. Today, however, he faces bankruptcy.

Humiliated, Del is forced to downgrade his lifestyle, sell the home he's long cherished, and fade into a history of forgotten legends—unless he can revive his career. All he needs is one last chance. While searching through memorabilia from his beloved past, Del rediscovers a mysterious envelope, dated 1962, containing an original screenplay by Marilyn Monroe—and proof that she named him its legal guardian.

Del surges to the top of Hollywood’s A-list overnight. But the opportunity to reclaim his fame and fortune brings a choice: Is Del willing to sacrifice newfound love, self-respect and his most cherished friendship to achieve his greatest dream?

A story of warmth, humor and honesty, Beautiful Mess follows one man's journey toward love and relevance where he least expects it—and proves coming-of-age isn't just for the young.

Excerpt:

Arnie’s cheeks turned rosy as he grinned at Del. A wide, toothy grin. The discoloration of enamel betrayed a long-entrenched penchant for red wine. He rolled the script and slapped it against his palm.

“Do you realize how many people would dry-hump a flagpole to get their hands on this?” exclaimed the agent. “We’re talking history here! Hollywood’s best-kept secret!”

Del felt a bittersweet quiver in his gut but suppressed it. His life was about to become interesting again.

Arnie paged through the screenplay further, scanning the dialogue. Several minutes ticked past. Del savored the silence which, in this case, was the sound of power.

“Have you read this, Del?”

“I have.”

“Pretty deep shit in here. Dark shit, the kind that scares the hell out of you.” Arnie skipped to the screenplay’s midpoint and read some more. “And talk about explicit. The profanity, the sexual content, everything.”

“She made herself vulnerable, no doubt.”

“Damn, Del. This woman must’ve been more fucked up than we thought.”

Del winced. “Arnie, cut it out.”

“Sorry, I forgot you two were pals.” The agent shook his head in an absentminded manner, his mouth hanging open as he read further. “No wonder she didn’t show this to anybody else. Can you imagine how people would have reacted to this in 1962? The film would’ve been X-rated—if ratings had existed back then—and gotten banned from theaters. People would’ve protested outside. This script would’ve ruined Marilyn Monroe’s career.”

“But today—”

“—it’ll resurrect it.”

10 Facts You May Not Already Know About Marilyn Monroe

Thanks for letting me stop by! My new novel, Beautiful Mess, is a romantic comedy that also delves into the darker side of Marilyn Monroe’s life. The book centers around Del Corwyn, an aging actor, who stumbles across a screenplay Marilyn penned in secret—a screenplay that would have destroyed her reputation, career and freedom if discovered in 1962.

As I researched her background, I came across many surprising facts about her. I thought I’d share a handful of them with you here. So here we go … 10 facts you may not already know about Marilyn Monroe:

1.     Arthur Miller, Marilyn’s second husband, wrote the screenplay for her 1961 film, The Misfits. Yes, the playwright who wrote Death of a Salesman and The Crucible had a direct footprint in Hollywood, too—albeit a small one. The Misfits was Marilyn’s final film release.

2.    Marilyn Monroe was a film producer. That’s right, she was an entrepreneur! And it was rare for a female at the time. She formed her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, in an effort to gain independence from studio-mandated projects. She produced only one film, but it’s a classic: The Prince and the Showgirl.

3.    Marilyn was raised, for a brief time, by evangelical Christians. She spent much of her childhood in foster care, including a brief stay in an orphanage, before her mother’s friend became her legal guardian. But Marilyn held dear to her heart her first foster parents, the Bolenders, who brought her to church as a child.

4.    Marilyn was locked away—against her will—in a mental institution. Those around her questioned her sanity, betrayed her trust, and committed her to long-term institutional care. Frightened, she insisted on her sanity, begged for her release, which fell on deaf ears until…

5.    Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn’s ex-husband and baseball legend, worked behind the scenes to obtain Marilyn’s release from the mental institution. They rekindled their friendship after their marriage, and that friendship lasted until her death. If it weren’t for DiMaggio’s loyalty and faith in her, we might never have heard from Marilyn Monroe again.

6.    Marilyn’s exquisite diction resulted from a concentrated effort. Natasha Lytess, her first drama coach, drilled it into her. Despite Marilyn’s reputation as a blonde bombshell, she considered herself a serious artist and sought to perfect her craft.

7.    Arthur Miller doctored the script for Marilyn’s 1960 film Let’s Make Love, though his contributions are uncredited. He was unhappy with the original script and sought to enlarge Marilyn’s role.

8.    Marilyn’s final film was never completed. It was called Something’s Got to Give, and shooting was in progress when she died. You can find footage out there, but the project was scrapped.

9.    Rumor had it Marilyn’s second drama coach, Paula Strasberg, earned the third-highest salary for The Prince and the Showgirl. Marilyn valued her drama coaches’ input and derived confidence from having them nearby, so she kept them on the set of her films. This often caused tension on the set. Allegedly, Strasberg’s paycheck was second only to Laurence Olivier and Marilyn herself.

10.                    Marilyn received only $50 for the infamous nude photos that appeared in Playboy magazine. Originally, the photos appeared in a smutty calendar before her film career began. At the time, Marilyn was unknown, a starving artist who agreed to the photo shoot because she needed the cash. Once she became famous, the photographer sold the photos to Playboy for a huge sum—of which Marilyn never received a dime. She was humiliated.

Some of these facts are fun. Some broke my heart and changed my perspective on the legendary actress. And when I watch her films from now on, I suspect I’ll never view her in the same light. When I wrote Beautiful Mess, I aimed to present the Marilyn Monroe we all celebrate while affording her the respect she sought so desperately.

Join Del Corwyn, my protagonist, and his close friend, Marilyn Monroe, for a ride in his 1956 Chevy Bel Air in Beautiful Mess! You never know which other fun facts might hide between the pages.

I love to hear from readers and would-be readers. Feel free to contact me at my website, www.johnherrick.net. My social links are there too. And thanks again for letting me visit the blog. Never give up!

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Author Bio and Links:

A self-described “broken Christian,” John Herrick battled depression since childhood. In that context, however, he developed intuition for themes of spiritual journey and the human heart.

Herrick graduated from the University of Missouri—Columbia. Rejected for every writing position he sought, he turned to information technology and fund development, where he cultivated analytical and project management skills that helped shape his novel-writing process. He seized unpaid opportunities writing radio commercial copy and ghostwriting for two nationally syndicated radio preachers.

The Akron Beacon Journal hailed Herrick's From the Dead as “a solid debut novel.” Published in 2010, it became an Amazon bestseller. The Landing, a semifinalist in the inaugural Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, followed. Publishers Weekly predicted “Herrick will make waves” with his novel Between These Walls.

Herrick's nonfiction book 8 Reasons Your Life Matters introduced him to new readers worldwide. The free e-book surpassed 150,000 downloads and hit #1 on Amazon's Motivational Self-Help and Christian Inspiration bestseller lists. Reader response prompted a trade paperback.

His latest novel, Beautiful Mess, folds the legend of Marilyn Monroe into an ensemble romantic-comedy.

Herrick admits his journey felt disconnected. “It was a challenge but also a growth process,” he acknowledges. “But in retrospect, I can see God's fingerprints all over it.”

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