Featured Author: Chrissy Anderson

Last November, Chrissy Anderson was here to talk about her first book, The Life List, and she brought Leo, one of the main characters, too. We were also treated to an excerpt from that first book in the trilogy. I'm happy to report that the second book, The Unexpected List, is now out, and Chrissy is back with a guest post and another excerpt. She's also received A Blue Million Books' Daredevil Award for accepting the Dirty Dozen challenge and answering all twelve questions. First, a refresher on The Life List, and a little bit about The Unexpected List:

The Life List

The Life List is the ultimate chick lit novel and most of the story is true. Chrissy Anderson, a twenty-eight-year-old fashion executive, created a seven-point life list at the age of sixteen, and she's been steadily checking off the boxes and mocking the style and life choices of everyone around her ever since. Her life begins to run amuck when she unexpectedly meets a much younger man, Leo, who makes her question her "perfect life."

Chrissy's lifelong friendships and her marriage are put to the test as she tries to sort out her feelings for Leo. With the help of her brassy, no-nonsense therapist, Dr. Maria, Chrissy learns more about herself than she anticipates. But, it isn't until the untimely death of her best friend that Chrissy is catapulted into long overdue authenticity and scrambles to correct the mistakes of her past...trying to figure out if it's Kurt, Leo or both that she has to get rid of to make everything right.

Women of all kinds--twenty-somethings, housewives, and superwomen wanna-bes- will all be able to relate to the pressure of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. Not everyone will agree with Chrissy Anderson's decisions, but all will pause as they follow along on her journey to ask, "What would I do if I were her?"

The Unexpected List

Chrissy Anderson’s The Unexpected List delivers another charismatic combination of romance and anguish, peppered with large doses of wit. In this second novel from The List Trilogy, Chrissy, who is now divorced from her husband, Kurt, is finally free to pursue a “truly, madly, deeply” relationship with the man of her dreams, Leo.

And it looks like Chrissy is finally going to be able to have her wedding cake and eat it too as Leo valiantly tries to make all of her dreams come true. But once again, Chrissy’s world, and her relationships, are turned upside-down as someone else close to her dies. And, an unexpected gift forces her to grow up--fast. For a second time, Chrissy is pushed to make a choice between love and obligation. What will she choose this time?

Your favorite characters from The Life List are back. Dr. Maria, Slutty Co-worker, and Chrissy’s best friends from high school, Courtney and Nicole, continue to laugh and cry with Chrissy as she learns how to pick herself up and move on to achieve the life she’s always wanted, and now knows she deserves.

Excerpt from The Unexpected List

That old saying, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, is super true. And, since I know this so well from personal experience, I know I’ll eventually get to the acceptance stage of what Kurt just unexpectedly showed up to my cottage to tell me. The difference this time though is I’ll probably arrive at acceptance at the same time as everyone else.

I was on the phone with Leo. He and Taddeo had been hard at work rebuilding the Hedge Fund business, and the work officially started when they renamed it, T.L. Capital. Hearing that Leo’s initial was now in the title made me think his stint in New York was going to be longer than the four or five months he promised. But when I nervously asked if I should change his mailing address, he said “Baby, like I said, I’m coming home.” He was still on target to open up a west coast division of the business in March. I was relieved to know that my drugs would be back at my disposal in three months. It was during my explanation of comparing being with him to injecting heroin that the walls started vibrating.

“I’m serious Leo! Heroin is like taking the best orgasm you’ve ever had and multiplying it by like...a billion, and you’re still nowhere near how good it makes you feel!  Yep, you’re like my heroin! I tried you once and now I’m addicted for life!”

His deep and sexy laugh makes me want to crawl into the phone and end up in his mouth!

“But Chrissy, have you ever tried heroin?”

“Well no, but-”

The pounding startled me so much that I let out a little scream.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s at the door.”

“What the hell? It’s ten at night!”

I thought the same thing and it scared me. There are only two reasons for a ten-at-night door pounding; a booty call or a scare-the-wits-out-of-you emergency. Seeing as though my booty call is currently an airplane ride away, I knew the night was about to take a turn for the worse.

“CHRISSY, OPEN THE DOOR! PLEASE, I NEED YOU!”

That’s Kurt’s voice. Oh shit, he found out about the engagement! But how?

“Talk to me.  What’s going on over there, baby?”

Remember Chrissy, you made a vow...no more lies.

“I don’t know, Leo. I think it’s...I think it’s Kurt.”

“Open the door and put him on the phone.”

“Seriously? There’s no way I’m...”

“OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR AND PUT HIM ON THE PHONE!”

You know what? Leo has every right to be mad, and I think this time I need to let him handle his anger directly with Kurt. I wonder though...would I be thinking so rationally if the ass-kicking had the potential to be anything more than a verbal one? Uhhhhh, that would be a BIG, no! Honest to God, I fear the day these guys have a face-to-face encounter. I don’t think either of them could hold back the urge to punch, and the thought of them hurting each other is too much to bear. Reaching for the door handle, I think...until then, let the verbal war begin.

Nothing could’ve prepared me for what I saw when I opened the door. There was Kurt, trembling, with tears streaming down his face and large pools of dried blood covering his sweat-drenched shirt. I dropped the phone at the same time Kurt dropped to the ground.  Yes, I knew the night was about to take a turn for the worse when I heard the pounding, but there was absolutely nothing that could’ve prepared me for how bad a turn the night- no, scratch that. There was absolutely nothing that could’ve prepared me for how big of a turn my life was about to take when Kurt opened his mouth and starting screaming.

From Chrissy:

It took a chance encounter with a young stranger at a bar to realize my life list was bullshit. But did I have the courage to correct the mistakes of my past? Was I strong enough to defy the wishes of everyone around me and become the woman I was meant to be?

You can find the answers to these questions in The Life List. I'm Chrissy Anderson, and this is my story through my life choices--some good, some stupid, some sleazy. Sure, I've made some big mistakes. But, I learned from them and came out the other end in a pretty damn good place. My hope is that I can help you do the same.

Guest Post from Chrissy Anderson

(Originally posted on Chicklitplus.com)


Buriiiiiing, buriiiiing, buriiiiing…

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Chrissy Anderson?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Hi, hunny, this is Rita Wilson. It’s an honor to speak to you.”

(Long dubious pause on my end of the receiver)

“Hunny...are you there?”

“Rita Wilson? The Rita Wilson...as in Mrs. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson?”

“Yep! Hey, listen, I read The Life List, and I have to tell you I was blown away. It’s not your average chick-lit read, and Chrissy’s not your average chick-lit heroine; she’s opinionated, judgmental...snarky. I found her personality hysterical, clever and totally relatable!”

“You did?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Well, no, not surprised with what you said. It was my intention to write about myself as an authentic person that women of all kinds-twenty-somethings, housewives and super woman wanna-bes- could relate to. I think all of us can connect to the pressure of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. I guess...I’m surprised the book found its way to you. I’ve been trying to get a copy of it in your hands for over a year. I think the closest it got was to your agent’s assistant’s assistant.”

“Are you kidding? I found my way to your book! Everyone in Hollywood is reading it. You’ve created something really special, and I want to help you take it to the next level. It’s got to be a movie.”

“That’s exactly what I think!”

“You know what I love the most about it...well, beside the fact that the role of Chrissy’s therapist, Dr. Maria, is made for me!”

(OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD!  I’ve been blogging about that for over a year!)

“I love that The Life List is part I of a trilogy. This whole project has the shelf life of a can a soup! It’s going to last forever. And the whole love triangle thing happening between Kurt and Leo, and how you took two men who are polar opposites, sexy and compelling in their own right, and made them both these guys that Chrissy could easily fall in love with...it makes me giddy with excitement! I went to your website and voted for my choice. Love how you have the ability to do that there! It’s so cool to see how the votes are split between the two guys, isn’t it?”

(OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD!  Rita Wilson went to my website!)

“I go crazy thinking about the marketability of your work, Chrissy!”

“I know, right? Show me one woman who can’t identify with something I went through in this book, and I’ll show you a woman who is either very young, very much in denial, or the very luckiest woman on earth.”

“Well, hunny, I hope right now you feel like the luckiest woman on earth, because we’re about to make all of your dreams come true. Your convoluted and chaotic real life love story is about to become the American version of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Are you ready?”

******

Aaaaaaand this is where you hear a record scratch.

******

I’m chick-lit novelist Chrissy Anderson, and the pipe dream above has been my pipe dream ever since I wrote the first word of the first chapter of The Life List. Introduce me to one chick-lit novelist who says she doesn’t have a pipe dream like mine, and I’ll slap her senseless for being a big fat liar! Isn’t world-wide recognition and critical acclaim for a story well-written why we stay up long after our day jobs are done, our families have been fed, the laundry folded and our kiddos have fallen asleep? Don’t we write with the hope that women everywhere will benefit in some way from the distinctive words we scour the thesaurus to find and fill our novels with? Every single time we hit CTRL-S before logging off of the computer don’t we let out a big sigh and say a little prayer that something huge will happen with our work? Don’t we all secretly wish that someone like Rita Wilson will stumble upon our books and be so moved by them that she insists on acting as a force accelerator, catapulting our work to Twilight-like proportions?

No?

Well, poop on you. I do! In fact, most days it’s that pipe dream that keeps me going. It’s that pipe dream that pushes me to enroll in promo day after promo day on KDP select, pimping myself out to any book blogger and website that’ll help me get more downloads than the month before. It’s that pipe dream that eggs me on to spend countless hours (and dollars I don’t have) promoting those promo days on e-reader websites, knowing that half of them forget to plug me on the right day. It’s that pipe dream that gives me the courage to shamelessly promote myself to my 799 facebook fans. It gives me the strength to draft another blog for my website (www.askchrissy.net) and SEO the crap out of it. To spend my weekends doing book signings...scouring the Internet for opportunities to advance my rankings on Amazon’s best sellers list...Oh, and let’s not forget about cramming in some time to write the last novel in The List Trilogy. 

For me, my pipe dream is my lifeline. I mean, I’m certainly not failing (far from it actually), but if you’re a relatively un-known writer like me, you know the struggle I’m talking about here. You know how hard it is to beat last month’s downloads, to make a buck from a sale, get a 5 star review, get another Facebook fan, pull off a higher ranking on Amazon...to get the time to write an actual book, let alone read one! My pipe dream is what makes me smile through all of the trials and tribulations of being a small fish in this big intimidating literary ocean. It’s what gets me excited and...hopeful--hopeful that all of my creativity, hard work, and wit will pay off. If you’re an ounce of the dreamer I am, you know the kind of motivation I’m talking about. 

So I know I’m not alone. Share your pipe dream with me in the comment section. Who knows...maybe one of us reading this has the ability to fulfill one! C’mon, let’s get silly and support each other. Anyone know Rita Wilson?

Chrissy Anderson Answers the Dirty Dozen

1. Name one thing you couldn’t live without. 

Aside from any person who I love (that would be too obvious), I have to say mascara.  I know, it’s ridiculous answer, but it’s the truth.

2. If you could only keep one book, what would it be? 

The Shack.  For a completely non-religious person like myself, it really got to me.  I re-read it about twice a year.

3. Your last meal would be...

Thanksgiving dinner

4. Would you rather work in a library or a bookstore? 

A library. 

5. You won the lottery. What’s the first thing you would buy? 

I’d buy my parents a new car. They’ve been driving the same one for almost twenty years.

6. Would you rather be stranded on a deserted island or the North Pole? 

100%, no doubt, I’d pick the Island.

7. You’re given the day off, and you can do anything but write. What would you do?

Clean my house and cook a delicious meal. My happiest days end with a clean house and meal that I had the time and attention to prepare. I LOVE TO COOK!

8. You’re driven to a private plane and told it will take you anywhere your want to go. Where would it be? 

Germany. I’ve only been once and for a few days. The people, the castles, and the history...it was pure magic. I’d do anything to be there with my husband.

9. You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?

I can’t even pretend to want to be someone who is pretend. It’s not in me.

10. Where would your dream office be? 

In my home...exactly where it is.
 
11. If you could do only one, would you rather read or write? 

Write.  I’m a woman in motion. It’s hard for me to sit still and read. I feel guilty.

12. One of your main characters has to die. Which one would you kill off? 

D’oh!  Too many wonderful ones have already died. Uhhhhhh, I guess I’d say...No, no, no, I can’t say. It’ll ruin Part III of The List Trilogy!  You ALMOST got me with this one, Amy!!!!

Hmm...well, I'll let you off on that one, but only because it would be a spoiler for the third book.

About the author:

Who is Chrissy Anderson? Does it even matter really? I guess it would matter to the real Chrissy if she wrote The Life List for fortune and fame. But she didn't. She did it all for you. Hold on, scratch that. Of course there were some self-indulgent components to the whole shootin' match, but at the end of the day, she sees bits and pieces of her checkered past in almost every woman she encounters and she wants to help them, tell them they're NOT crazy.

Women of all kinds--twenty-somethings, housewives, and superwomen wanna-bes- will all be able to relate to the same pressures Chrissy felt of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. And I suspect there will be a lot of exhaling going on as those women read The Life List. Not everyone will agree with Chrissy Anderson's decisions, but all will pause as they follow along on her journey to ask, "What would I do if I were her?"

Chrissy Anderson spends her life doing exactly what she always wanted: doting on those she loves. A former fashion executive, she is a writer, wife, and mother whose own life events inspired The Life List. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with the love of her life and her beautiful daughter

"The difference between doing something and nothing is EVERYTHING."


Connect with Chrissy:
Website | Twitter | Facebook |Amazon

Talking with Tracy Tucker

I'm happy to have Tracy Tucker here as part of her book tour with CLP Blog Tours. Tracy's novel is a hilarious look at divorce, health, and life. 

About I Kill Me: Tales of A Jilted Hypochondriac:

Christine Bacon has a fatal attraction. To all things fatal. A veteran hypochondriac, her near-death experiences are exacerbated when her husband proposes they have a menage a trois with Eleanor, his busty British massage therapist, to "shake things up." Christine reluctantly agrees (although she is more wholesome than threesome), never expecting just how much she'd be rattled. As her marriage to Richard, a/k/a "Dick," falls apart, so, too, does Christine, whose fear of her own demise causes her to research every freckle, blemish, cough, bump, lump, tingle and hiccup. She isn't a doctor, but she plays one on the Internet.

There is solace for Christine: in raising daughters Lily and Carli, leaning on her friends, and wearing out the shower massager. In order to heal, she struggles to become her own person and to view her symptoms (and ex-husband) as less malignant, while searching for that special someone who will love her--despite her grave condition.

*I KILL ME is intended for an adult audience*

Tracy, I love your writing style. How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

Like many writers, I was first a reader. And an avid one. I'd carry stacks of books with me wherever I'd go. I wrote a story (loosely based on My Friend Flicka - sshhh) which my mother typed up and my father, a Dean at the University of Maine, "published" on the College of Education bulletin board. One of the art professors even illustrated it! I still have the prints. This was my first "taste" of fame, but honestly, the private side of writing was just as rewarding. I used to love curling up on my yellow beanbag chair in my bedroom with my spiral notebook, filling it up with stories of angst and horses. I remember one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Kleine, staying in at recess and helping me edit my stories. She even submitted them to children's magazines. I wrote through high school for Inside, our school newspaper, and Enclave, our literary magazine, and had my first of three poems accepted by Seventeen magazine (15 bucks a poem - I was thrilled). I continued to write through college and wrote my first book, a middle grade novel entitled Joe Nobody, soon after I graduated. Motherhood of three daughters took up just a bit of my time, so my writing was mainly put on hold until my children were older and I went through a divorce. My marriage may have been over, but my writing career wasn't!

How did you come up with the title of your book?

I originally had an agent for this book, and at that time the original title was “Shaken and Stirred.” My agent decided I should come up with something more original, but at the time I really liked the title, so we both decided on “Stirred, But Not Shaken.” I wasn’t completely satisfied with this, because the main character was most definitely shaken, but as a newbie with an agent, I thought I’d go with what she said :). I came up with my new title just before self-publishing the book, and I like this one much better...it has a double meaning, just like the chapter headings.

Do you have another job outside of writing?

I've been a teacher for seventeen years, currently teaching grade 5-7 Reading/Language Arts. It's been a wonderful career, but I am hoping to write full-time in the not-too-distant future, if my audience deems it so. :)

So many parts of this book were laugh out loud funny. Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.

I have several favorite scenes:), so I will pick a humorous one and a poignant one. The funny scene is in the chapter called “Rabid” where Christine is trying to keep the family holiday traditions alive by going to a Christmas tree farm with her kids, and her teenage daughter Lily is being difficult and negative. One poignant scene that stands out to me is when Christine, newly divorced, is looking at Lily during the night of Lily’s party, and she says, "It was hard standing here, alone in my love for her, and trying to be enough. I so wanted to be enough for my daughter." I remember feeling that way as a single parent.

What song would you pick to go along with your book?

“Somebody to Love” by Queen. I originally had lines from the song in the chapter where Christine is talking to the radio D.J., but I would have had to get permission to use the lyrics. That song is one of my personal favorites - so stirring and moving - it usually brings tears to my eyes, and I love Freddie Mercury’s voice. I think that song captures what Christine is feeling throughout the book...what many people feel after enduring the break-up of a significant relationship.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
I really find I can write most anywhere, but I recently have written a lot at my new writing desk in my den. I can look out over our field, which right now is covered in snow. I will often start the gas fireplace and am usually accompanied by a glass of water with lemon and ice, a burning candle, and sometimes a writing buddy, my white cat Moby. I will try to sneak in writing whenever I can, but most of it is done after I get my horses in for the night and the pets (and ourselves) fed. One of my favorite times to write is on Saturday morning.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

“Be the person your dog thinks you are.” I love this. One of my former student teachers gave me a bumper sticker with this quote on it, and I keep it on my desk in my classroom.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love to spend time with my children, both human and furry. I've loved having my daughters home on college break because the empty nest stage has been hard for me. I've always been passionate about animals, ever since I was very young. I love walking my dogs or snowshoeing with them in the winter, riding and grooming my horses, cleaning stalls, preparing their hay, grain and water...I love the whole farm lifestyle. It's purposeful work, and very grounding. I also enjoy reading on my Kindle before I go to bed, and going to Sunday breakfast with my husband at our favorite local restaurant. I also really love just being at my home and working in and around the house.

I'm anxious to read more of your work. What are you working on now?

I'm about 30,000 words into my next book (contemporary women’s fiction). It has some humor and, in my humble opinion, a likable cast of characters, with sex, drama and a major twist planned for the end. The main character is a 36-year-old veterinarian who was widowed two years ago and is raising her teen daughter. She's rather addicted to sex but prefers to keep emotions out of it...until an intriguing new man enters her life. He’s cool toward her, and she can’t figure out why. Oh, and she sees the image of her husband as she orgasms. I'm planning on an early spring release.

I can't wait to read it, Tracy! Please come back to talk about your new book when it's released.

Excerpt from I Kill Me

This year would be Dick's and my first Christmas as separated husband and wife. Did Hallmark make a tree ornament for that? I could think of a few designs. Maybe a wedding ring split in two with a busty British massage therapist holding the pieces. There could be a big bruise under the massage therapist's eye from where the wife slugged her. The word separated always conjured up the image of a dismembered torso, with limbs scattered nearby. It felt pretty much like that.

But separated or not, Christmas was coming, and I was determined to make it a good one for the kids. This was what I kept in mind as the girls and I tromped through mucky brown fields of the tree farm to find a tannenbaum worth fighting over.

“Where’s all the snow?” Carli wanted to know. “Christmas is supposed to be white.”

Christmas is supposed to be a lot of things. “We still have two weeks. I’m sure we’ll get some,” I said, lacing my voice with optimism.

“We might not, though,” Lily responded. I threw her a don’t start look, but her head was turned toward a family cutting down a tree. A father, mother, son and daughter. The father was tall and handsome and smiled a lot. He’d probably gotten laid last night. The mother was petite and adorable in her fuzzy red hat and matching mittens. Even the tree was perfect: gargantuan, majestic. They undoubtedly had cathedral ceilings and a huge window in which to display the tree. They’d load the tree with expensive ornaments but would also proudly display the popsicle-stick-and-glitter stars the kids made in preschool. You could just tell.

Carli ran ahead to a tall evergreen. She undoubtedly had tree envy after seeing that family’s selection. “How about this one, Mumma?”

I shook my head. “Too big.” I glanced over at Lily, who was standing with her hands jammed in her pockets. “Come on, Lil...help us find one.”

She dipped her chin into the collar of her coat. “I’m cold.”

“Well, then, let’s find a tree and we can go.”

“Why didn’t we just get a fake tree?”
          
I could feel my jaw begin to tighten. Why was she making this so difficult? We always came to this tree farm. Couldn’t she understand I was just trying to keep things the same?  I forced myself to sound pleasant. “Because live ones are better.”

“But once you cut them down, they aren’t alive anymore. They’re dead. So we’re really bringing home something we killed.” She looked immensely pleased with herself.

I stared at her. I could hear the son of the Perfect Family asking politely if they could go get some hot chocolate. “Of course!” his perfect mother replied. “That’s the best part!”

“Come on, Carli,” I said. “I feel like killing something.”

I trudged to the next row of trees. “Do you girls see anything you like?”

Lily rolled her eyes and shrugged. Carli ran to a rather sparse-looking tree. “How about this one?”

“That one’s not full enough, honey.” I turned to see a couple in the next row standing by their selection. They looked like newlyweds. The wife stood back as her husband cut into the tree with the bow saw. Her eyes were glowing. There was something sexy about a man cutting down a tree: even a stocky guy with glasses like this one. He was probably going to get laid tonight. We stood watching him work the bow saw with quick, even strokes. The tree began to tip.

“Timberrrr...” I called. Lily and Carli looked at me like I had three heads. “That’s what they say,” I explained, “when they’ve cut down a tree and it’s falling and they want to warn people.”

Carli was puzzled. “Why don’t they just say, ‘look out, there’s a tree falling?”
I gritted my teeth. “Because that would take longer to say. They want people to get out of the way quickly.”

Carli was undaunted. “You could say it fast. Like ‘lookoutthere’satreefalling.’ Kids might not know what ‘timber’ means.”

“WhatEVER!” Lily exploded. “Just shut up!”

“LOOK,” I hissed. “We are getting a goddamned Christmas tree.”

The girls gaped at me.

“We’re getting this one.” I pointed to the tree closest to me.

“But some of the needles are orange,” Carli said hesitantly. “And it’s not very big.”

“It’s perfect,” I snapped.

Within minutes I was sawing away at the trunk with vicious cuts. Goddamned--sonofa--BITCH! The tree was mine. It began to lean. Breathing hard, I gave it a shove, looked at Carli and yelled, “Look out, there’s a tree falling!” Lily rolled her eyes. Carli stared at me, unblinking.

We headed back for the cabin with the murdered tree. We did not speak. Suddenly, a black and white cat darted in front of us. Carli twisted around to look and dropped her end of the tree. “Mumma, look! He’s so cute!”

We put down the tree and I walked to the next row where the cat had disappeared. “Kitty-kitty-kitty!” What was he doing on a tree farm? The owners leased the property but didn’t live there, and the closest neighborhood was some distance away. It must have been a stray. I continued searching.

“MOM!” Lily called. “Can we go?”

“I'm trying to find him,” I yelled back. “He shouldn’t be out here.”

I moved between the trees, taking slow, careful steps. Black tail with a white tip, snaking back and forth. He was huddled under a tree. I crouched down and reached for him very carefully. Lily yelled my name again just as my hand came in contact with the stray. He whipped around to face me...shit! I felt his needle-sharp claws sink into my wrist, in the space between my glove and coat. He bounded away through the brittle yellow grass.
I met up with the girls near the cabin. “Where’s the cat?” asked Carli.

“He took off.” Gingerly, I pulled back the edge of my coat sleeve to reveal the scratch. There were two half-inch gouges, deeper than I’d thought, and very red.

“Did he bite you, Mumma?” Carli leaned forward to peer at my wrist. “It looks like teeth marks.”

Now I was unsure. What if he had bitten me? If he was a stray, there was no telling what diseases he could be carrying. Toxoplasmosis, or cat scratch fever, or....rabies. Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men, he could have rabies!

I gave Lily a little push in the direction of our car. “I need to pay for the tree. Take your sister to the car and I’ll be right out.”

“But can’t we have some hot chocolate?” Carli asked.
“No.”

“But that’s the best part!”

We are not the Perfect Family!

Buy the Book!
Amazon / Smashwords

About the author:

Tracy H. Tucker is first and foremost the mother of three of the best people on Earth. She has a Master's in Literacy from the University of Maine and has inspired the youth of America for seventeen years. She's an avid animal lover and would like to publicly thank her husband for putting up with the pet hair, the dogs in the bed, the things the cats hack up and the repeated requests for goats. It's a wonderful life.

Connect with Tracy:
Blog/ Facebook page/ Goodreads/ Twitter

Review of I Kill Me, Tales of A Jilted Hypochondriac

I recently had to make the difficult decision to stop doing reviews. Thankfully, I read and reviewed this book before that dreadful edict came down. In short, I highly recommend this book.

Maybe it's because I could relate to the main character, Christine, with her hypochondria and overbearing mother, or maybe it's because I love to laugh, and this book provides plenty of laugh out loud moments, or maybe it's because I like a good contemporary love story, or maybe it's all of the above...but I loved Tracy Tucker's I Kill Me.

Ms. Tucker takes us inside the head of a forty-something wife whose husband has just left her. To make matters worse, with every bump, scrape, or you name it symptom, Christine is certain she has a deadly disease. No, it shouldn't be funny and entertaining to be in a hypochondriac's head, and neither the author nor I am making fun of the very serious disorder, but Christine's thoughts are just flat out funny, and you can't help but like her. I found myself wishing she'd say out loud the things she was thinking about her idiot husband, but I still enjoyed her spunk in thinking them.

I'm also a fan of using dialect in novels, and the British accent Ms. Tucker gives one of the characters is spot on. I could hear her in my head perfectly, and even though the woman was annoying as all get out (in a good way), I loved reading her dialogue.

There are a few things I was hoping Christine, would achieve, and Ms. Tucker did not disappoint. I won't spoil the ending, because that makes people cranky, but I can't think of a more satisfying ending to this book than what the author gave us. I loved this whole book, but the ending? It is one of the best endings ever. I happily gave this book five stars.