The Ninth Wife...Review & Giveaway!

You all know how I love a great read and there is a brand new one (out May 10th!) that I can't wait to crack open...The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls.  Here is a brief synopsis....

What sane woman would consider becoming any man's ninth wife? Bess Gray is a thirty-five-year-old folklorist and amateur martial artist living in Washington, DC. Just as she's about to give up all hope of marriage, she meets Rory, a charming Irish musician, and they fall in love. But Rory is a man with a secret, which he confesses to Bess when he asks for her hand: He's been married eight times before. Shocked, Bess embarks on a quest she feels she must undertake before she can give him an answer. With her bickering grandparents (married sixty-five years), her gay neighbor (himself a mystery), a shar-pei named Stella, and a mannequin named Peace, Bess sets out on a cross-country journey—unbeknownst to Rory—to seek out and question the wives who came before. What she discovers about her own past is far more than she bargained for.

Sounds great, right??  Because my mother-in-law, The Queen Bee, is an avid, speed reader I let her give this one a whirl first.  Here is the scoop from the Queen Bee herself...

This is my first read by this author, but it won't be the last. I loved the way she built the relationship between the two main characters of this book. If I could visualize this story it would be like a car driving up a mountain by going round & round , until it got to the peak, rested for a minute and then came back down, round & round. again.

 As the story begins, Bess is talking about her life as a single thirty-something woman, her friends, her job (a researcher/ folklorist), her training in the martial arts, and her big break up with her last boyfriend. And then the next chapter is Rory talking about his past , growing up in Ireland, leaving for America and marrying very young and thinking it was the love of his life. Then back to Bess and then Rory again, every other chapter, so you can feel this story building. I loved the way this story was written.

Bess decides to have a singles party where all invited quests bring a single friend to hopefully to get lucky in love. Sure enough, one of her friends brings Rory. At the same party, her ex-boyfriend shows up with his pregnant new girlfriend and disappears just as the poor girl's water breaks! Bess ends up feeling responsible for this girl because her ex took off and left her alone with a new baby.  Here begins all the ups & downs of this great story. Rory and Bess begin dating and it looks like love. He proposes ( or does he? ) and follows it up with an admission that he happened to have been married eight times previously.  The rest of the book is a quest on Bess' part to find the other wives and ask them what happened in their marriages to Rory and  then,  hopefully, she would find an answer to Rory's proposal: should she become the ninth wife?

There are so many smaller stories w/other characters entwined in the main story of this book that it is really pretty rich in secrets and mysterious past lives. I give this two thumbs up and anxiously await Stolls' next book.

The Queen Bee loved it and I can't wait to get reading!  I have already moved it to the top of my nightstand stack!  You can pick up this great read today on Amazon...

Thanks to the publisher, Harper Perennial, one RBM reader will win a copy of Amy Stoll's Ninth Wife!  Thanks so much to the sponsor.  Here is how to enter...

Mandatory Entry: Visit Amy Stoll's website and tell me something you learned about this very talented author. You must complete this entry for all others to count.

For Extra Entries:

1.  Follow this blog= 1 entry

2.  Like Reviewed By Mom on Facebook =1 entry

3.  Like Amy Stolls on Facebook= 1 entry

4.  Enter one of my other giveaways & let me know you have done so = 1 entry per other giveaway entered.

5.  Follow Amy Stolls on Twitter= 1 entry

6.  Follow Reviewed By Mom on Twitter = 1 entry

7.  Blog, Tweet or Facebook about this giveaway & let me know where to find it = 1 entry

8.  Follow Harper Perennial on Twitter= 1 entry

9.  Follow the guest reviewer, Queen Bee's blog=  2 entries

Please leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to include your e-mail.  Contest is open to US  residents and will end on May 26th    The lucky winner will be announced by e-mail on May 27th and will have 48 hours to respond before another winner is chosen .  Good Luck!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.  The opinions in this post are entirely my own. Your experience may differ from mine. This post has not been reviewed or edited by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this review. The sponsor of this giveaway is responsible for prize fulfillment and shipping the winner(s) their prize.

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