In association with Diversion Books and Author Eileen Palma, Jersey Girl Book Reviews is pleased to host the virtual book tour event for Worth the Weight!
Author Guest Post
The Many Sides of Dr. Dolittle
If you saw my husband Doug on the street wearing one of his dark hoodies and fingerless gloves, you might be a bit intimidated. With his muscular build, thick black hair spiked into a fauxhawk and scraped up knuckles, he looks every bit the MMA fighter that he is.
You would never suspect that tough guy who passed you on the street was on his way to save lives at a large Manhattan animal hospital. Doug is an MMA fighter by night but during the day he is an award-winning veterinarian who specializes in internal medicine. His clients think he’s a miracle worker, and he has proved them right time and time again by cheating fate and giving their animals bonus months or years.
When he’s not being a vet or learning the latest grappling move, Doug is known to our tween daughter Molly’s friends as the dad who will take a gaggle of girls to whatever late night girly movie they all want to see. He’s the fun parent who makes up silly games like Supermarket Jenga where he and Molly take turns pulling oranges off the stack to see who sends them all tumbling down first.
Most male characters that you see in a romance novel are typecast, the strong silent firefighter, the rough and tumble cowboy, the charming sophisticated rich man. But being married to my husband taught me that in real life men are complex and can have contradicting personality traits. My husband takes turns being Dr. Doolittle, Chuck Liddell and Super Dad.
If you read the Worth the Weight book blurb, the first thing you’ll find out about Jack is that he is the CEO of Considerable Carriages, a company that makes strollers, high chairs and car seats for overweight children. But I needed to make him so much more than that. It wasn’t like Jack was some periphery character that the female protagonist adores from a far. Jack literally takes up half the book because every other chapter is written in his viewpoint. So I couldn’t get caught in the trap of creating a flat character. I had to figure out all the little parts of Jack’s personality because I learned from living with my own husband that men have many different sides to them.
So along came Lauren, Jack’s ten-year-old niece who lives upstairs from him and is a huge part of his life. All the wise cracking, back and forth that goes on between Doug and Molly made it into the scenes with Jack and Lauren. Adding Lauren gave the reader a chance to see the nurturing side of Jack.
Then I had to add Matt, Jack’s best friend that he’s known forever. Matt shows the reader the guy’s guy side of Jack. Their scenes have a lot of cursing and rough housing. At one point in the book you find out that Jack does a lot of philanthropic good with the proceeds from his supersized strollers.
If you passed Jack on the street with his ironic tee shirts and pudgy build you might think he is a hipster who does some sort of free lance gig from the comfort of his own apartment; you would never guess he was the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. Which is great, because you can’t have an easy to figure out character in a story about mistaken identity.
Eileen Palma has an English degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and has studied Advanced Novel Writing at Sarah Lawrence College’s The Writing Institute. Her writing has appeared in The Momoir Project, Macaroni Kid Bronxville, Patricia Dunn's author blog, Blogging in the Big Apple, PTO Today and on the front page of Our Town.You would never suspect that tough guy who passed you on the street was on his way to save lives at a large Manhattan animal hospital. Doug is an MMA fighter by night but during the day he is an award-winning veterinarian who specializes in internal medicine. His clients think he’s a miracle worker, and he has proved them right time and time again by cheating fate and giving their animals bonus months or years.
When he’s not being a vet or learning the latest grappling move, Doug is known to our tween daughter Molly’s friends as the dad who will take a gaggle of girls to whatever late night girly movie they all want to see. He’s the fun parent who makes up silly games like Supermarket Jenga where he and Molly take turns pulling oranges off the stack to see who sends them all tumbling down first.
Most male characters that you see in a romance novel are typecast, the strong silent firefighter, the rough and tumble cowboy, the charming sophisticated rich man. But being married to my husband taught me that in real life men are complex and can have contradicting personality traits. My husband takes turns being Dr. Doolittle, Chuck Liddell and Super Dad.
If you read the Worth the Weight book blurb, the first thing you’ll find out about Jack is that he is the CEO of Considerable Carriages, a company that makes strollers, high chairs and car seats for overweight children. But I needed to make him so much more than that. It wasn’t like Jack was some periphery character that the female protagonist adores from a far. Jack literally takes up half the book because every other chapter is written in his viewpoint. So I couldn’t get caught in the trap of creating a flat character. I had to figure out all the little parts of Jack’s personality because I learned from living with my own husband that men have many different sides to them.
So along came Lauren, Jack’s ten-year-old niece who lives upstairs from him and is a huge part of his life. All the wise cracking, back and forth that goes on between Doug and Molly made it into the scenes with Jack and Lauren. Adding Lauren gave the reader a chance to see the nurturing side of Jack.
Then I had to add Matt, Jack’s best friend that he’s known forever. Matt shows the reader the guy’s guy side of Jack. Their scenes have a lot of cursing and rough housing. At one point in the book you find out that Jack does a lot of philanthropic good with the proceeds from his supersized strollers.
If you passed Jack on the street with his ironic tee shirts and pudgy build you might think he is a hipster who does some sort of free lance gig from the comfort of his own apartment; you would never guess he was the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. Which is great, because you can’t have an easy to figure out character in a story about mistaken identity.
About The Author
Eileen lives in a New York city suburb with her husband, daughter and a scrappy Wire Haired Fox Terrier.
AUTHOR WEBSITE
GOODREADS
Book Review
Worth the Weight by Eileen Palma
Publisher: Diversion Books
Publication Date: April 27, 2014 eBook / April 29, 2014 Paperback
Format: Paperback - 318 pages
Kindle - 322 pages / 2013 KB
Nook - 3 MB
ISBN: 1626812802
ASIN: B00JZPDWCO
BNID: 2940149520596
Genre: Chick Lit / Romantic Comedy / Women's Fiction
BUY THE BOOK: Worth the Weight
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by the publisher, Diversion Books.
Book Description:
When Kate Richards, the effervescent host of television's KidFit and the author of kid-friendly diet cookbooks, runs into Jack Moskowitz at a dog park, sparks fly. He's attractive, charming, and single. She has no idea that he's also the one man who could cost Kate her career--the CEO of Considerable Carriages, a company that profits from childhood obesity.
Jack knows exactly who Kate is, though. She tore his company apart on television only the day before! Seeing an opportunity, Jack starts digging up dirt on his nemesis, to put her crusade on ice once and for all. But the more time the two spend together, the more his lie—and his feelings for Kate—spiral out of control.
When Jack and Kate try to tip the scales of romance it brings chaos, heartbreak and hilarity and more than a few laps around love’s track.
Book Excerpt:
Kate’s hair dripped down in waves ending in upside down question marks as she leaned over Jack. A black droplet trailed from Kate’s eyelash down her cheek and pooled in the heart-shaped bow of her full upper lip. She smelled like an apple orchard after an afternoon rain shower.
Kate exhaled, a slow steady breath of air that pushed out of her barely parted lips and when Jack breathed in, he felt like she had burrowed her way inside him. Another drop of mascara laced water trailed down from Kate’s eyes and Jack caught the black teardrop with the soft pad of his thumb. He left his hand resting on Kate’s cheek and felt the ins and outs of her breathing.
Kate closed her eyes and leaned into Jack’s touch, a small sigh escaping her mouth. Jack lifted his head just enough to catch Kate’s lips with his. She tasted like cinnamon, sweet with a little exotic spice mixed in. They kissed deeply, without abandon and all at once stopped being strangers.
© 2013 WORTH THE WEIGHT by Eileen Palma
Kate exhaled, a slow steady breath of air that pushed out of her barely parted lips and when Jack breathed in, he felt like she had burrowed her way inside him. Another drop of mascara laced water trailed down from Kate’s eyes and Jack caught the black teardrop with the soft pad of his thumb. He left his hand resting on Kate’s cheek and felt the ins and outs of her breathing.
Kate closed her eyes and leaned into Jack’s touch, a small sigh escaping her mouth. Jack lifted his head just enough to catch Kate’s lips with his. She tasted like cinnamon, sweet with a little exotic spice mixed in. They kissed deeply, without abandon and all at once stopped being strangers.
© 2013 WORTH THE WEIGHT by Eileen Palma
My Book Review:
In her debut novel, Worth the Weight, author Eileen Palma weaves an entertaining romantic comedy that follows the unexpected romance between two nemeses who are at opposite ends of the social issues of child fitness and childhood obesity.
Jack Moskowitz is the CEO of Considerable Carriages, a company that builds strollers and car seats for large children. Kate Richards is the television host for KidsFit and the author of kid-friendly diet cookbooks. Jack and Kate meet at the local dog park in NYC, and while Jack knows who Kate is ... his nemesis, Kate doesn't know who Jack is. Jack's identity is kept hidden when his niece Lauren steps in and provides Kate with a phony last name. Jack is determined to dig up dirt on his nemesis, but as they get to know each other attraction builds and an unexpected romantic relationship develops, but is it worth the weight when opposites attract, and the truth of the mistaken identity rises to the surface?
Worth the Weight is a delightful romantic comedy that kept me in stitches and thoroughly entertained. Set in NYC, the author provides the reader with a fast paced romantic tale that takes them on a fun romp through the city that never sleeps with richly descriptive references of local landmarks. The reader is easily drawn into Jack and Kate's story as they unexpectedly fall in love through one sly little girl's intervention, even though they are on the opposite sides of a touchy social issue, childhood obesity. I loved the witty dialogue, the humorous romantic chaos and dramatic tension between Kate and Jack, and the inclusion of their pet dogs Sarah Jessica Barker and Diesel, and the quirkiness of the secondary characters.
Worth the Weight is a lighthearted story has a little bit of everything: humor, romance, drama, tension, and a subtle message on the awareness of the social issue concerning childhood obesity. This is an easy read that will keep the reader laughing-out-loud and entertained on a lazy spring/summer afternoon.
RATING: 4 STARS
Virtual Book Tour Schedule
Tour Schedule:
05:06: http://www.librarymistress.com/
05/07: http://clippingsintheshed.wordpress.com
05/08: http://forthepassionofromance.blogspot.com
05/09: http://www.jdanielparra.com/
05/10: http://www.fictiondreams.com
05/10: http:// www.krittersramblings.com
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