A Great Book - and My First Giveaway!!

I recently received a copy of the new novel, "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming," compliments of Hachette Book Group. It arrived on Thursday at about 2:50 in the afternoon.

I do enjoy reading, but generally don't have a lot of free time, so I will read a few pages here and there. I haven't read a book cover-to-cover with barely a break since "The Davinci Code." I decided to open this one and just read a couple of pages. All I can say is WOW!! This book had me after the first two pages. At 3:00, I turned off the television and curled up on the couch. My kids came home from school and I kept reading. I put things in the oven for dinner, while reading. I could not put it down!! At around 7:45, I finished the book. It really was THAT GOOD! This is not common for me, so you know it had to be a very intriguing book.

Here is the publisher's description of the tale:

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother make sure the literal family skeleton stays in the closet or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel's life seems neatly on track--a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna--everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 13-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is inexplicable--an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia's help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

Richer and more rewarding than any story Joshilyn Jackson has yet written, yet still packed with Jackson's trademarked outrageous characters, sparkling dialogue, and defiantly twisting plotting, THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING is destined both to delight Jackson's loyal fans and capture a whole new audience.

I have to say, this book doesn't fit neatly into the box of any genre. It is part mystery, part drama, part ghost story, part suspense/thriller...all work of art. It kept me interested from beginning to end, and I was never quite sure where it was going or how it was all going to play out in the end. It never slowed down, and the character development was sheer genius! I will definitely be seeking out other books by Joshilyn Jackson!

You can order a copy of "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming" from many retailers. You can find a great list here. But, thanks to Hachette Book Group, I am also offering 5 of my readers the chance to WIN a copy! Believe me, you WANT to read this book. It's endlessly fascinating!! Winners must be in the US or Canada, and books cannot be shipped to a PO Box. So if you have a US or Canadian street address, PLEASE enter!!!

In order to enter to win, please leave a comment on this post. If your email is not visible on your profile, please leave me a way to contact you. For an additional entry, become a follower of my blog. Be sure and leave a second comment if you follow me. For a third entry, blog about this giveaway on your own blog and leave me a comment with a link to your post. I really want to get the word out!! And for a fourth, and final, entry, grab my button and post it on your blog, leaving a comment with a link to where I can find it. Easy, isn't it?? I will take comments through midnight on Monday, May 25th and the winners will be selected by random.org and announced on Tuesday, May 26th.

Thanks for entering my first giveaway! And a HUGE thanks to Hachette Book Group for sponsoring a giveaway of an absolutely excellent novel!!!