About It Would Be Night in Caracas

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperVia (October 15, 2019)

Told with gripping intensity, It Would be Night in Caracas chronicles one woman’s desperate battle to survive amid the dangerous, sometimes deadly, turbulence of modern Venezuela and the lengths she must go to secure her future.

In Caracas, Venezuela, Adelaida Falcón stands over an open grave. Alone, she buries her mother—the only family she has ever known—and worries that when night falls thieves will rob the grave. Even the dead cannot find peace here.

Adelaida had a stable childhood in a prosperous Venezuela that accepted immigrants in search of a better life, where she lived with her single-mother in a humble apartment. But now? Every day she lines up for bread that will inevitably be sold out by the time she reaches the registers. Every night she tapes her windows to shut out the tear gas raining down on protesters. When looters masquerading as revolutionaries take over her apartment, Adelaida must make a series of gruesome choices in order to survive in a country disintegrating into anarchy, where citizens are increasingly pitted against each other. But just how far is she willing to go?

A bold new voice from Latin America, Karina Sainz Borgo’s touching, thrilling debut is an ode to the Venezuelan people and a chilling reminder of how quickly the world we know can crumble.

Thoughts
I can’t imagine living through what Adelaida lived through. Not only was she dealing with the death of her mother but she was also dealing with the chaos in her world.

The book is full of information about the events in Caracas but since it’s a work of fiction and I don’t know much about what has happened in the past and what is still going on in Venezuela,  I don’t know how accurate it is. This is a story about living in a country where your only thought 24/7 is how you are going to survive.

The book is short at only 240 pages, but in those pages you get a lot and are very thankful that you have not had to live through anything like this.

Great writing, great characters, great mix of emotions.
I would definitely read another book by this author.

Social Media
#itwouldbenightincaracas @tlcbooktours @harperviabooks

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Lisbeth Salas

About Karina Sainz Borgo

Karina Sainz Borgo was born and raised in Caracas. She began her career in Venezuela as a journalist for El Nacional. Since immigrating to Spain ten years ago, she has written for Vozpópuli and collaborates with the literary magazine Zenda. She is the author of two nonfiction books, Tráfico y Guaire (2008) and Caracas Hip-Hop (2008). It Would Be Night in Caracas is her first work of fiction.

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About Marilla of Green Gables

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (October 8, 2019)

A bold, heartfelt tale of life at Green Gables . . . before Anne: A marvelously entertaining and moving historical novel, set in rural Prince Edward Island in the nineteenth century, that imagines the young life of spinster Marilla Cuthbert, and the choices that will open her life to the possibility of heartbreak—and unimaginable greatness.

Plucky and ambitious, Marilla Cuthbert is thirteen years old when her world is turned upside down. Her beloved mother dies in childbirth, and Marilla suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife: cooking, sewing, keeping house, and overseeing the day-to-day life of Green Gables with her brother, Matthew and father, Hugh.

In Avonlea—a small, tight-knit farming town on a remote island—life holds few options for farm girls. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth “Izzy” Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape from Avonlea to the bustling city of St. Catharines. An opinionated spinster, Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world.

Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. Joining the Ladies Aid Society, she raises funds for an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity in nearby Nova Scotia that secretly serves as a way station for runaway slaves from America. Her budding romance with John Blythe, the charming son of a neighbor, offers her a possibility of future happiness—Marilla is in no rush to trade one farm life for another. She soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition—jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe. Now Marilla must face a reckoning between her dreams of making a difference in the wider world and the small-town reality of life at Green Gables.

Thoughts
I’ve always wondered what Marilla and Matthew’s lives were like before Anne. This book does a great job of letting us know. The book starts out with Marilla and Matthew as children, living with Clara, their mom, and Hugh, their dad.  I enjoyed getting to know them and the other characters introduced in this book.

The book is full of both happy and sad times, and is the perfect lead up to Anne. It answers a lot of question many fans of this series have.

The author did a great job of writing in a similar style of LM Montgomery. So much so that you may forget that she isn’t the original author.

Anyone who loves the book or tv series Anne Of Green Gables would probably love this book.

Social Media
Please use the hashtag #marillaofgreengables and tag @williammorrowbooks, @sarahmmccoy, and @tlcbooktours.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Emily Martin

About Sarah McCoy

Sarah McCoy is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the novels The Mapmaker’s Children; The Baker’s Daughter, a 2012 Goodreads Choice Award nominee; and The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico. She has taught English and writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. She lives with her husband, an orthopedic sports surgeon, and their dog, Gilbert, in North Carolina.

Sarah enjoys connecting with her readers on Twitter at @SarahMMcCoy, on her Facebook Fan Page, on Instagram at @sarahmmccoy, or via her website, www.sarahmccoy.com.

Growing Up in Disneyland by Ron DeFore

This is not a book all about Disneyland and Hollywood. Although Disneyland was my “backyard” for five years of my childhood, “Growing up in Disneyland”— with all its different “lands”—is more of a metaphor for my entire life beginning with growing up in a “Hollywood” celebrity family and into adult life filled with countless jaw-dropping experiences and career changes. Yes, there’s been many Hollywood-type books written, so for years I thought writing such a book would be redundant or just overlooked. I mean, who cares? Who would be interested?

My father, Don DeFore, was a well-known celebrity in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, a beloved actor of his time, and one of America’s first TV characters. Even later in life when his movies and TV shows were in re-runs, he still attracted many well-wishers at restaurants and other public places. Why? Not just because of his celebrity but because fans sensed that Don DeFore was never just acting, but projecting his genuine, “regular guy” personality that made him both endearing and enduring and loved by millions of fans.

As for interest in my life, other celebrity sons and daughters surely had exciting experiences. But did they have equally incredible brushes with history and amazing encounters similar to that of Forrest Gump? I’ll let you be the judge! After years of telling my life’s many stories in conversations and public presentations, the number of people telling me to write a book reached critical mass. I’ve now come to believe at least some people are interested. At minimum, this book will chronicle the achievements of one of America’s favorite character actors. But I must emphasize this is not meant to be a comprehensive biography of my Dad.

There are historians that know far more about every character he played and interesting details about each production. Many of his accomplishments happened before I was born. It is this period—his early live theater, film, and TV career where I use my Dad’s own words. For the first time, portions of his unpublished autobiographical memoirs, Hollywood—De- Fore ‘n’ After, are published here. Only minor editing was applied for clarity. His writings are in italics.

Although the first part of my book covers most of my Dad’s career highlights, this is mainly my story of growing up in a celebrity family, and many of the amazing experiences afforded me because of it and my upbringing. Being in the public relations business the later part of my life, I’ve learned to “give the headlines first” so here are just a few of them I will expound upon:

¶My Dad, Don DeFore, has a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame.
¶ In the 1950s he was “Mr. Thornberry,” or “Thorny,” the next-door-neighbor character, in the tremendously popular weekly TV series “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.”
¶Dad was president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for two consecutive terms. In his first in 1954, he sold the first nationally televised broadcast of the Emmy Awards to NBC.
¶ In the early 1960s he co-starred in his own hit TV series, “Hazel,” playing the head of the household, Mr. Baxter, or “Mr. B.”
¶Dad was in more than thirty feature films, co-starring in about a dozen with Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Spencer Tracy, Betty Hutton, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, and Groucho Marx (a full list is on my website dedicated to his works: www.defore.net.
¶He co-starred in Charlton Heston’s first feature film, “Dark City.”
¶ In “My Friend Irma” Dad got co-star billing above “introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.” Similarly, with Doris Day’s first feature film, “Romance on the High Seas,” as well Lizabeth Scott’s first film, “You Came Along.”
¶Dad was the only person to own his own concession in Disneyland that displayed one’s name: Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue restaurant in Frontierland.
¶Our family got to meet the Beatles during their 1964 U.S. tour. My sister, Dawn, kissed them all. My new 8mm captured the only known film of that private party in Brentwood.
¶As a real estate agent in Encino California, I showed a house to Michael Jackson.
¶ I got to meet Led Zeppelin and was the only onstage photographer (other than their own) at their September 4, 1970 Los Angeles Forum concert. ¶Mike Love, lead singer of the Beach Boys, asked me to be his PR guy for the 1986 “Live Aid Concert” in Philadelphia.
¶ I did a show with Robin Williams at which he and I arrived before anyone else and spent at least 30 minutes talking. But I don’t recall saying a word!
¶ The Robin Williams experience was during my mid-life crisis (at age 26) when I was a Disco DJ – “The Flying DJ” of L.A.’s famous Dillion’s Discotheque. I actually flew above the crowd in a space suit. I’ve got video to prove it, however, I never listed that exact job description as I later became…
¶A political appointee in President Ronald Reagan’s Administration—holding three positions (wow, good thing they didn’t see the video!).
¶Dad produced one of Ronald Reagan’s early political events in 1961 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
¶As a featured singer with orchestras in the1930s and early ’40s my Mom, Marion Holmes, made “I’m a Little Teapot” famous. She also had a pretty well-known matron of honor at her wedding: Judy Garland (for younger readers, “Dorothy” in the “Wizard of Oz”).

Thoughts
Wow, this book is GOOD! I’m so glad a joined this tour!!!

I’m a big fan of Disney, biographies, and autobiographies, so I knew right away I wanted to read this book. At first I didn’t remember who Don DeFore was, but after reading who he played on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet & Hazel, I did remember him, just not his name.

The book is full of information about the lives of Don and his son Ron, but also their careers and people they met along the way. There is a bit of politics, UFO’s/aliens, celebrities, and a lot more.

There is a “Photo Chapter” full of photos with their explanation, which I really loved.

This is a book that you don’t want to put down even though you know there are things you need to be doing. It will stay on my shelf that is reserved for books that made a big impact on me and that I plan to re-read.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Don Defore, you will enjoy this book.
I highly recommend this book to everyone!

GIVEAWAY:
This giveaway is for 3 winners choice of one print or ebook copy of the book. Print is open to the U.S. only and ebook is available worldwide. This giveaway ends November 29, 2019, midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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