Thursday, August 13, 2015

Lemongrass Hope by Amy Impellizzeri - Guest Blog and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Amy Impellizzeri will be awarding a signed copy of the book (US Only) and a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things We Might Not Know About Amy


Fun!
Ok. Here goes.

1. Like Ian in Lemongrass Hope, I’m a pretty good craps player. My husband and I once sat next to John McCain at a craps table in Vegas. He rolled dice for over an hour. When we finally left the table, we thanked him for his service … and the $900 his roll had won for us!

2. I’m not afraid of spiders, snakes, tunnels, or the Bermuda Triangle. The only thing I’m currently afraid of are 90 degree water park slides which my oldest always insists I go on with him.

3. I go to a lot of fundraising events, and I have pretty decent luck at the silent auctions. Probably because I usually bid on things no one else is bidding on!

4. I’ve never missed a deadline – either as a writer or a lawyer. Once, a brief of mine was stuck in a fed ex warehouse not too far from my office – in danger of missing its due date - and I convinced a delightful security guard to let me climb up on the warehouse conveyor belt – in my navy blue lawyer suit and block heels in order to sort through the packages to find and retrieve my brief so I would not miss the deadline. True story.

5. The original version of Lemongrass Hope had a character that shared the name of an old boyfriend. (I won’t tell you which boy or which character). Just before the book went to print, I changed the name to avoid, you know, confusion. :-)

Set in the past, and present, LEMONGRASS HOPE is a captivating and unpredictable love story, with a dose of magical realism and time travel. LEMONGRASS HOPE weaves together ordinary lives and events to tell an extraordinary tale of connection, loss, renewal, and of course, hope. As Kate Sutton's decade-long marriage to Rob erodes and unravels, Kate fears that the secrets she guards from the world, including Rob's emergency room proposal, and a whirlwind love affair from her past, have always doomed her fate. When Kate unwittingly receives a glimpse at what her life could have been had she made different choices all those years ago, it is indeed all she could have ever wanted. A confirmation of her greatest hope ... and her greatest fears. Read the book hailed by New York Times Best-selling authors and reviewers, including Jacquelyn Mitchard, Oprah's very first book club selection author.

Enjoy an excerpt:

“It seems you did not actually read my amazing piece on all of this in Time Travel, Inc.”

Kate laughed. “Is that for real? The real name of your magazine?”

“Well, yes. Seems it caused a bit of confusion with my Botswanan guide, as well. He saw me faxing some notes back to my editor and asked if I was really writing about time travel.”

“So you told him yes, naturally.”

“I actually did.” Ian looked only mildly sheepish when he said this.

“Anyway, that Botswanan guide invited me to drinks the next day. They make a drink down there from the fruit of the marula tree. It’s known to cure disease and do all sorts of things. So, over this decadent marula tree booze, my guide told me a story of a mystic in the delta who swears that through some combination of the fermented marula tree fruit and Botswanan agate, he can make things happen.”

“What things?”

“Well, time travel, of course.”

For a moment, Kate thought Ian was mocking her, or perhaps was a complete lunatic, but then he burst out laughing. “I know, crazy right? That’s what marula drink will do to you. At any rate, I have spent the last six months trying to convince my editor that there is another story down there in the delta – something about the mystic and the agate and the marula. And I’ve finally succeeded. If nothing else, I’m going to treat myself to one helluva marula drunk.”

Kate stopped eating and blinked hard at her plate of curry. She could not help but wonder what it would be like to drink marula booze in the Botswanan delta with this handsome man who seemed like he just might believe in time travel.

And who was making her want to believe as well.


About the Author:
Amy Impellizzeri is a reformed corporate litigator, former start-up executive, and best-selling author. In 2009, she left her 13-year litigation career to write and advocate for working women, later joining the executive team of the award-winning website, Hybrid Her (named by ForbesWoman as a “Top Website for Women” in 2010 and 2011). Through her work at Hybrid Her, and as Vice President, Community & Content, for its later re-brand, ShopFunder, Amy worked closely with hundreds of creative and inspiring entrepreneurs and fundraisers, writing and marketing their stories to new audiences.

In October 2014, Amy transitioned to full-time writer, with the publication of her first novel, Lemongrass Hope (Wyatt-MacKenzie 2014), which debuted as an Amazon best-seller (Romance/Fantasy and Romance/Time Travel). Oprah's very first Book Club Selection author and New York Times #1 Best-Selling Author, Jacquelyn Mitchard, has called Lemongrass Hope a "fine and fresh thing - a truly new story." Lemongrass Hope was featured by Library Journal and Foreword Reviews Magazine, and has been a favorite with Book Clubs and numerous Book Bloggers (including as the #1 favorite reviewed selection in 2014 by The Literary Connoisseur). Lemongrass Hope was recently selected as an INDIEFAB 2014 Book of the Year Finalist (Romance) by Foreword Reviews Magazine.

Amy's first non-fiction book, Lawyer Interrupted (ABA Publishing 2015), is due out Summer 2015. Her essays and articles have appeared in The Huffington Post, ABA Law Practice Today, The Glass Hammer, Divine Caroline, Skirt! Magazine, among more.

Please connect with her by visiting her website: www.amyimpellizzeri.com … or via Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpellizzeriAmy or Twitter - https://twitter.com/AmyImpellizzeri.
Watch the book video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYRN4acESxg

Buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

9 comments:

  1. Great post! I LOL'd at #2 on the 5 things list... :) Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Sounds like a great read!!
    Thanks for the chance to win!

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  3. This sounds like an intriguing book~such a different premise! Thank you for sharing!

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  4. I liked the five things and the excerpt.

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  5. I have enjoyed learning about the book. Thanks for sharing it.

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  6. A fun list of 5. I don't like water slides at all.

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  7. What sparked the idea for this book?

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  8. I enjoyed the excerpt. Thank you for the post and the giveaway!

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