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Daddy’s Girl by J.M. Kelly – Review/Giveaway/Excerpt

PLEASE MENTION THE PRIZE THAT THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY:

J.M. will be awarding a gift basket of some of the author’s favorite things, including a $25 gift card from Amazon and a signed copy of the Foreign Affairs anthology from Turquoise Morning Press to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Encourage your readers to follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-daddys-girl-by-jm.html

 

DADDY’S GIRL

By

J.M. Kelley

BLURB:  

 

Sometimes, returning home isn’t about confronting your past; it’s about discovering your future.

 

Janie McGee, the black sheep of her family, is free-spirited, uninhibited, and never one to stay in the same place for too long. When Janie learns her father, Joe, is gravely ill, she reluctantly returns home to rural Pennsylvania to care for him. Joe’s neighbor, David Harris, sports a pocket protector, collects coins, and is addicted to Antiques Roadshow. Everything about him rubs Janie the wrong way, from his nerdy wardrobe to his enviable friendship with Joe. And to make matters worse, her father thinks they’re perfect for each other, proof positive of how little Joe knows his own daughter…or so Janie thinks.

 

A shared devotion to the elder McGee begins to close the gulf between Janie and David, but a burgeoning romance opens the door to new problems and unexpected consequences neither could foresee. Joe, however, remains steadfast in his resolve to show Janie that Daddy knows what’s best for his little girl. Can Janie finally open her heart to David while watching the first man she ever truly loved fade away?

        

 

 

 

Excerpt Two:

 

“Need help?”

 

Janie turned around and grinned in spite of herself when David appeared from the living room. Her eyes lingered on the red sleeveless cardigan he wore over a crisp white work shirt. “Nice sweater vest,” she said. She held a crumpled bag out to him.

 

“Thanks,” he said, too brightly to have read the sarcasm in her words, Janie figured. She rolled her eyes and followed him out into the kitchen.

 

“So, what are you doing here?” She shed her coat and hung it over a chair.

 

David started unpacking the bags. “Antiques Roadshow. Didn’t your father tell you?”

 

Janie snorted. “Well, yeah, but I thought he was joking. You guys really sit around and watch that show?”

 

David stepped aside to grant Janie access when she reached for the boxes of cereal. “It’s intriguing.”

 

“Oh, yes.” The sarcasm was back. Janie carried her armload to the pantry. “I saw it once. They had an intriguing analysis of a step stool. I’ve never been so moved in all my life.”

 

“You mock what you do not understand.”

 

Laughing, Janie walked back to the kitchen table. “So what was the big item of the night?”

 

David scowled. “A pair of eyeglasses.” He paused. “They had reason to believe they could have belonged to Benjamin Franklin.”

 

Janie made an O shape with her mouth and fanned her hand at her face. “Be still my heart. I think you should get permission from the doctor before you subject my father to such drama. What’s he doing, anyway?”

 

Unfazed, David tossed a pear at her. “He’s asleep in his chair.”

 

“Shocker.” She pulled a bowl from the cabinet and placed the pears inside. “Oh, by the way? I’m mocking what I do understand.”

 

“Yeah, well, you have your shirt on backwards.” David grinned and folded his arms over his chest as Janie pulled the neck of her shirt out and peered at the tags.

 

“Crap,” she whispered.

 

Review:

One minute I was laughing and then the next I was crying.  I personally haven’t lost a parent but I lost my beloved grandfather 10 days before I turned 16.  His death still haunts me to this day.  It affected me in ways that I’m still dealing with. 

I completely understood and sympathized with Janie in her relationships with her dad and sister.  My relationship with my younger brother is strained at best sometimes but we try to work on it all the time.  So again, I understood where Janie was coming from in the book.  Did I want to shake her sometimes?  Sure but that’s what I liked about her.  She was relatable and real to me.  I laughed with her and cried with her.

David was a total geek but also an alpha male.  Yes, alpha.  He was there for her dad and in the end for Janie.  Janie just needed to open her eyes.  Their relationship was funny from the start.  It seemed like two opposites coming together story but in the end, they were the perfect couple.  The complimented each other with their strengths and weaknesses.   BTW, I love Antiques Roadshow.  Yes, is it corny but sometimes there is a gem in the rough.

The dialogue between the characters was funny, realistic and heartwarming.  This was such a great story about a father and daughter.  Sometimes father does know best and you should listen to your dad.  My dad is the best in the world and sometimes I don’t tell him enough. 

In the end, this book is for any daughter and father to share and enjoy.  Yes, I would recommend this book to my dad to read and realize that I truly do love him and I listen to him.  Okay, maybe when I wasn’t a teenager but I do now.  🙂

 

Welcome J.M! Please start off by telling us a little about yourself.

My name is J.M. Kelley. I am a Pennsylvania native living in South Carolina for the past three years, and I am trying to come to terms with the Southern accent I am developing. I am a writer by night, and a grunt worker by day, which makes for a very odd writing schedule.

 

Is Daddy’s Girl a single title, or part of a series?

Daddy’s Girl is a single title story, a work of women’s fiction with strong romance elements.

 

What were your inspirations for the story?

This is my inspired-by-real-life story. My own father died in 2007, and Daddy’s Girl, while not a recounting of his illness, probably would have never come to fruition if we had not lived that experience.

Please share your setting for (book title). Have you ever lived or visited there? If so, what did you like most?   

The setting is Meyersville, Pennsylvania, a fictional town somewhere in Lancaster County. I could point on a map to the spot I believe Meyersville should exist: On the fringes of Amish country, somewhere in the corn-fields and cow pastures that overlook the Susquehanna River. I’ve certainly been to the area Meyersville would exist if it were real. Lancaster County, especially the parts the Amish-seeking tourists rarely see, is beautiful: truly rural, peaceful, and downright breathtaking in places. I always loved to just hop in my car and drive around for a few hours.

 

When did the writing bug first bite?

In kindergarten, or first grade. I loved writing those silly stories that were basically a collection of five or six words, and later two or three whole sentences. The local newspaper had a feature on Fridays called the Junior Dispatch. Teachers from all the school districts in the area would submit our work for consideration, and if you were published, you would receive a crisp one dollar bill in the mail as payment. That one dollar bill was the Holy Grail for me. I probably racked up a whopping five or six dollars altogether in my elementary school career.

 

Who are you favorite authors, book/series?

I have a manic list of favorites: Anything by Stephen King, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries, and Toni McGee Causey’s Bobbie Faye books, just to name a few.

 

If you could have an author roundtable discussion with any authors, who would you invite?

 

I’d want an unpredictable discussion, with potential for fireworks or a good party. Let’s have Stephen King, Aldous Huxley, Ayn Rand, Steinbeck, Orwell, Salinger, Hemingway, Mark Twain and Hunter S. Thompson. That ought to be an entertaining enough mix. I’d just grab some popcorn and watch and listen.

 

Do you have any hobbies or special things you like to do in your spare time? 

I enjoy photography, reading, of course, fishing when I can bother to pull my equipment out of my trunk, and just sitting lake-side, ogling the mountains in the distance.

 

What’s the strangest thing you’ve heard or seen?

I just recently saw a hawk get hit by a car. It’s just so random and unexpected, and you have to wonder…what the heck was that bird even thinking?  Maybe not the strangest thing ever, but hey, it stumped me for a while afterwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

 

Three years ago, native Pennsylvanian J.M. Kelley packed her bags and moved south. Now, the wannabe Carolina Girl can’t speak a single sentence without adding the word y’all at the end of it, and regards a blast of snow flurries as a doomsday-level event.  When the day job allows, and when she can pull herself away from George Takei’s Facebook fanpage, she likes to go on writing jaunts to her favorite lake, or a local coffee shop with delicious shakes and questionable Wi-Fi connections.

 

J.M. Kelley is a proud recipient of a Carrie McCray Memorial Literary award, and is a member of The South Carolina Writers Workshop and Romance Writers of America (PAN). Readers interested in more information may visit her website at www.jmkelleywrites.com.

 

 

 

 

 

LINKS:

 

Email: readers@jmkelleywrites.com

Website: http://www.jmkelleywrites.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JM-Kelley/108021242585994

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJMKelley

 

Daddy’s Girl purchase links:

Turquoise Morning Press: http://www.turquoisemorningpressbookstore.com/products/daddys-girl-by-j-m-kelley

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Daddys-Girl-ebook/dp/B00B76P58S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359433661&sr=1-1&keywords=daddy%27s+girl+kelley

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/daddys-girl-jm-kelley/1114255053?ean=2940015960969&isbn=2940015960969

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Daddys-Girl/book-KHCuDTSR9E2C7bbOEw-87A/page1.html?s=E-llxuUKm0m_cW4LB0jGNA&r=1

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/279529

AllRomance: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-daddy039sgirl-1049844-149.html

Omnilit: https://www.omnilit.com/product-daddy039sgirl-1049844-232.html?oid=19

 

 

19 thoughts on “Daddy’s Girl by J.M. Kelly – Review/Giveaway/Excerpt

  1. Sorry for the late post. I’m playing catch-up here so I’m just popping in to say HI and sorry I missed visiting with you on party day! Hope you all had a good time!
    kareninnc at gmail dot com

  2. Not only the potential relationship between David and Janie was compeling but also the family dynamics between Janie and her father Joe as well as her sister Colleen. It was a well thought out story

  3. The book had so many layers. Plus, it wasn’t just the potential love relationship between David and Janie but the father/daughter relationship that told a beautiful story.

  4. A very solid rating! I really like the sounds of this book. It seems like it’s one of those that stick with you for a long time and make you think

    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

  5. Thank you for a wonderful post. I do love a book that tugs on my emotions.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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