CASTING ABOUT: REVIEW AND BONUS ENTRIES

GIVEAWAY ENDED
 CASTING ABOUT
BY TERRI DULONG

   

REMINDER...ABOUT THE BOOK:

In this beautifully crafted and uplifting novel, the author of the acclaimed Spinning Forward welcomes readers back to the lush Florida island of Cedar Key, where the vibrant shades of hibiscus and azaleas are the perfect backdrop to a colorful, quirky community. 

In the four years since Monica Brooks moved to Cedar Key, she’s found a home, a husband, and now a business to love. Taking over her mother’s bustling knitting shop is a welcome challenge, but Monica’s exciting plans are waylaid by unexpected news. Her husband’s ex-wife has been deemed an unfit mother, and custody of their eight-year-old daughter, Clarissa, is to be transferred to Adam.

Going straight from honeymoon to motherhood--especially when she's unsure she wants children--leaves the normally even-keeled Monica doubting herself at every turn. Yet in a place like Cedar Key, nobody goes it alone. With help from friends and relatives, Monica, Clarissa, and Adam begin to forge a close-knit family of their own--one that will need to be strong enough to withstand all the surprises set to unravel.

 

MORE....ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Author of the acclaimed women’s fiction Cedar Key Series, Terri DuLong is the author of Spinning Forward (Kensington Books, November 2009).

Born and reared in the Boston area . . . Salem, the Witch City, to be exact, DuLong was an only child, who relied on imaginary friends for playmates. All these years later, she believes those playmates (and her love for books) led her to her passion for writing.

Married young, with three children, then divorced, Terri went to college to become a legal secretary. After remarrying, with the children getting older, she decided to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse. She also continued her love for reading women’s fiction. As for her own writing, well it was limited to extremely long letters to friends and keeping a journal. After working in Critical Care as an R.N., the thought of writing “seriously” became stronger, and Terri took a creative writing class at college. Encouraged by the professor, Terri began writing with the hope of publication.

With the transfer of her husband’s job to the Tampa, Florida, area, she began to work part-time as a home health RN and devote more and more time to writing. TO FINISH READING ABOUT THIS FASCINATING AUTHOR'S LIFE, GO HERE ON HER WEBSITE!

MY REVIEW OF CASTING ABOUT:

Terri DuLong has given a gift to readers everywhere with her new Cedar Key Series novel, CASTING ABOUT. I absolutely adored this book as it was the perfect read to curl up with on a fall day and get lost on the Island of Cedar Key with its down home charm and friendly inhabitants. In the first novel of the series, SPINNING FORWARD, readers were introduced to Monica who is the daughter of Sydney Webster. Sydney’s story was mostly what the first book was about and in it (not to add a spoiler) we found that her yarn shop was taken over by Monica when Sydney left town.

Monica is in the “honeymoon stage” of her marriage of five months to the marvelous Adams Brooks, a strong male role model who is a school teacher and single dad of eight-year-old daughter Clarissa Jo.  When Adam’s ex-wife, Carrie Sue, a “real character”, is declared unfit, Adam gains full custody of Clarissa Jo and couldn’t be happier. Newly located and settled in Cedar Key, Monica fell in love with Adam, and they were only married those few months when she is suddenly thrust head-first into the sudden responsibility of motherhood. Clarissa arrives and the three begin the process of forming a suddenly ready-made family as Monica is required to make huge strides into becoming a mother very quickly. Unsure if she even wants to be a mother, Monica takes on the mission however, and through trial and error, many emotional ups and downs, slowly helps the three begin to bond as a family. After a few missteps, things are moving right along and Monica’s doubts about her maternal instinct begin to diminish.

With the help of family and friends, Monica is able to run her business and actually make some great improvements to the shop as well as slowly become used to being married and being a suddenly new mother. Adam’s mother, Opal, comes to stay on the island for a while and her stay stretches out as she bonds more with her granddaughter and her own insecurities begin to fade somewhat on this tiny strip of paradise. Delightful Dora is Monica’s aunt and helps run the shop, although she does it out of love of the business and knitting, rather than for any money.  Last in Monica’s circle is Grace, who is her best friend, and runs a wonderful local coffee shop that is down the street from the shop. The two friends are great support for each other and with Grace, another plot line develops.

When Grace starts to see a new man in town, Monica worries as Grace seems to be getting in pretty deep, pretty fast. It turns out the local beehive of gossip has it that developers are trying to buy up property to turn the lovely island into a tourist mecca. The locals are against this and when Monica gets an idea that the man Grace is seeing is implicated, she gets involved in their business which starts some fireworks going.

The other sub-plot deals with a spirit of  Sybile who was Monica's late grandmother. Faintly, and then more noticeably, she seems to make her presence known to Monica who at first chalks it up as coincidence. First things disappear and then show up again suddenly. Next Sybile seems to play an important part in helping Clarissa adjust to her new home. However, when sudden illness strikes the family, Sybile’s presence is most assuredly felt and it plays an important part in the story.

With the twists and turns of each story line keeping the pages turning, all “knitting“ together nicely at the conclusion; this is a novel I hated to see end. CASTING ABOUT reads just fine as a stand alone novel, but my guess is that you are going to want to start with SPINNING FORWARD so you can then have the follow-up of CASTING ABOUT ready to follow up with. Thus, you leave less time to wait for the next installment, unlike myself who now has to hope that Terri DuLong is writing furiously about more of these memorable characters who you wish lived down the street from you!

 

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO TERRI AND 
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING,
I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS DELIGHTFUL
BOOK TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE WINNER!
IF THERE ARE MORE THAN 100 COMMENTS,
I WILL FURNISH A SECOND COPY MYSELF! 

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

VISIT MY AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH

TERRI DULONG HERE FOR MORE INFO

AND EVEN MORE CHANCES TO WIN

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON MY REVIEW ABOVE OF CASTING ABOUT BY TERRI DULONG AND WHY YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK THAT I CAN FOLLOW

+1 MORE ENTRY: "LIKE" TERRI DULONG-CASTING ABOUT ON FACEBOOK BY GOING HERE. COME BACK TO REPORT YOU DID IT.

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OF MY CURRENT GIVEAWAYS YOU ENTERED. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU MAY COMMENT ON EACH SEPARATELY AND GET ANOTHER ENTRY FOR CASTING ABOUT FOR EACH ONE YOU ENTERED.

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, NOVEMBER 8!
 GOOD LUCK!