Review & Giveaway: Dining With Joy by Rachel Hauck

Joy Ballard fell into television by accident. Well, sort of. Her dad had a local cooking show, Dining with Charles. But when he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 56, his last wish was that Joy take over. There was just one problem with that, Joy is a total klutz in the kitchen. She can't cook, if it was possible to burn water, she would find a way.

But, for her dad and the crew who made their living from the show, Joy stepped in. And she turned out to be great on television. Funny, smart, full of ideas that made the show a success, taking it out of the kitchen making it more about the viewers and their experiences. For three years, everything was fine.

Then, disaster. The owner of the show sells to a big reality show production company. They love Joy, love the show, and are going to take it national. She has hit the big time...but that secret of hers just keeps getting bigger.

Luke Redmond looks like he might be her way out of the lie that threatens to ruin everything. He recently moved to Joy's hometown of Beaufort, SC after his New York restaurant failed. He's a great chef but a bad businessman. They hit it off from the start and soon Luke is the new co-host of Dining With Joy.

Unfortunately life is never so simple and lies as big as Joy's have a way of blowing up spectacularly.

Dining with Joy is published by Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-1-59554-339-4. I received this book as part of the TLC Book Tour, for a complete blog tour list, click here. For more information about Rachel Hauck and her books, visit her website.

Up for grabs is my gently read copy of Dining With Joy. To enter just leave a comment that includes your email address. Open to anyone with a US or Canada mailing address. You can enter until midnight eastern time on December 9. Thanks for visiting and entering!

The Great American Taste Test

This was so much fun! Today is the day for The Great American Taste Test, sponsored by Atria Books, to celebrate the book: America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants by Ron Douglas. The author has been on television quite a bit recently, he worked for years to put together this cookbook that is filled with recipes that duplicate dishes that you order in your favorite restaurants.

When I got my copy, I immediately looked to see if my favorite restaurant dish was included. Guess what? IT WAS! I love P.F. Chang's Chicken-Lettuce Wrap...I always order it when I go there (which is not very often, unfortunately). So I was excited to see if I could make my favorite thing at home with my limited cooking skills.

I got everything together and sent my hubby out to get the real thing. (It is quite a trip to the closest PF Chang's, so I had plenty of time). The recipe was easy to follow, even though there were quite a lot of ingredients, some that I am not used to cooking with. The result was indistinguishable from the original...and I got to eat my favorite thing in my own home. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes in the book, I think Red Lobster's Cheddar Cheese Biscuits might be next...

America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants is published by Atria Books. ISBN 978-1-4391-4706-1

Read the book BEFORE you see the movie giveaway: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film version is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

I have this wonderful book sitting here and I have been meaning to read it. But you know how it goes, I just haven't gotten to it yet! I simply have to make more time to read (anyone know how to add a couple of hours to the day?). Anyway, I have a little OCD about seeing movies that started out as books. I need to read the book first. I just do. For some reason, once the book is in my imagination I have no trouble watching someone else's imagining of it. But if I see the movie first, then my imagination never gets to do the work and it ruins things for me. Soooooo....

The movie is scheduled for release on August 7. This giveaway will be open until midnight eastern time on July 5, that should give the five lucky winners time to read the book before they see it! So leave me a comment here to enter! For an extra entry you can become a follower (if you follow already, you get the extra entry automatically), blog about the giveaway or tweet it on twitter. If you blog or tweet please leave a separate comment with the link. Winners will be drawn at random and must have a US or Canada mailing address (no PO Boxes). Many thanks to Anna at Hachette for providing the books for this giveaway! Good luck everyone and be sure to visit Julie's fantastic blog (that's how I know I am going to love this book, I already love her blog!).