Entangled Publishing Summer Carnival & Giveaway! Bliss Pie Bake Off Booth!

Step right up! Step right up! Get those taste buds ready for the Pie Bake Off booth hosted by the lovely Entangled Bliss authors. Each author specially baked a pie sure to delight. Check out the video and let us know which pie are you dying to eat? You can grab all of the recipes below. Summer Berry Berry Pie Hi, all! Jennifer here! Thanks for stopping by the Bliss Pie Bake-Off! For me, nothing says summer like a fresh fruit pie! My pie I've chosen for this bake-off has fresh raspberries, blueberries (a NJ fruit), strawberries and blackberries. YUM! I admit that pie crust usually intimidates me, but the recipe for the crust that is included is super easy (especially if you have a food processor) and is great to work with since it rolled out really nice and even. And that rarely happens for me, so I will definitely make this crust again! **I made the pie dough a day before to make it more simple for me. If you all are interested, here is the recipe from http://www.jocooks.com/ Ingredients Pie Crust 2½ cup flour 1 cup cold butter, cubed 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 6 to 8 tbsp ice cold water Filling 5 cups of mixed berries, sliced strawberries, raspberries, blueberries ¾ cup light brown sugar ¼ cup cornstarch 1 tsp orange zest ½ tsp vanilla extract 1 egg white for egg wash Instructions Place the butter in freezer for 20 minutes. In a food processor add the flour, salt and sugar and pulse a couple times. Add the butter to the food processor and pulse a few times until the mixture resembles peas. Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time and continue pulsing. The dough should start to hold together. Remove dough from food processor and place it over your working surface. Form the dough into 2 discs, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour up to 2 days before using. Preheat oven to 425 F degrees. Coat a deep-dish pie crust plate with nonstick baking spray. Place berries in a large bowl. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, cornstarch, orange zest and extract; mix well. Add to berries; toss to coat. Take out the pastry discs from the fridge and roll out a disc so that it's 12 inches in diameter and place it and arrange in your pie dish. Brush the pie crust with egg white so that it doesn't get soggy. Pour the berry mixture into the pie crust. Roll out the other disc so that it's 12 inches in diameter as well and cut it into lattice strips. Arrange the lattice strips nicely over the berries and brush with remaining egg white. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool before serving. Peanut Butter Pie 9"x11" glass baking dish 1 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (divided into 2) 2 tsp milk 1 T corn syrup 1/2 c confectioners super (divided into 2) 1 c butter or margarine + 2 T 12 oz whipped topping (i.e. Cool Whip) 1 c peanut butter 1 c brown sugar Graham cracker crust Layer 1 - The Crust Prepare baked graham cracker crust per directions on packaging. Set aside to cool. (Feel free to use a standard pie crust or Oreo crust - all work great for this recipe!) Layer 2 - Chocolate Base Layer Melt the following in a small saucepan:  3/4 c chocolate chips, 1 T butter, 2 tsp milk Add 1/4 c confectioners sugar Stir/blend Remove from heat and spread chocolate sauce over bottom of crust. Set aside to cool completely. Layer 3 - Peanut Butter Filling Melt 1 c butter in microwave, then stir in 1 c brown sugar Allow to cool for 10 minutes Pour mixture into blender and stir in 1 c peanut butter until well blended Fold in 12 oz whipped topping Pour filling over cooled chocolate layer Layer 4 - Chocolate Topping Melt the following in a small saucepan:  3/4 c chocolate chips, 1 T butter, 1 T corn syrup, 1/4 c confectioners sugar Mix well Spread carefully over the peanut butter layer Refrigerate until cool (great frozen as well!). Cut and serve! Lemon Ice Box Pie Ingredients -1 8oz. container of Cool Whip -1 14oz. can of Sweetened Condensed Milk -1/3 cup of Lemon Juice -1 Graham Cracker Crust Directions Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. When evenly mixed, pour into graham cracker crust. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Cherry Pie This pie crust recipe is simple, but the trick is the prep. You don't want to over-mix & the time in the fridge is essential to making the flakiest crust. (Also, credit for this crust goes to my neighbor from my hometown, Luella Crowther. It was the first time I ate all the crust on my piece of pie, because YUM!) 2 C flour *1 C butter (softened enough to work with) 1/2 C water dash of salt *shortening also works Add butter to flour and work in by hand until you have pea-sized bits. Scatter liquid over surface. Stir until just mixed with a fork and roll into two dough balls. Place balls in plastic wrap, pull up edges and press dough into a disk. Refrigerate for at least one hour before rolling out. (Fridge up to 5 days, freeze up to 3 months) Pound bottom crust dough with rolling pen. Roll out and form into pie pan. 1 Can of cherry pie filling (I search for the kind without corn syrup, because allergy fun!) 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp almond extract 1 T sugar Mix and put on the bottom crust. (Fair warning, I like my cherries on the sweeter side with a little tart. If you prefer more tart, skip the sugar & vanilla) Roll out second crust & cover. Flute edges & put in vent holes. Cover edges with foil, so they don't get too done. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes. GIVEAWAY a Rafflecopter giveaway Don’t forgot to check out all the authors books below. Wedding Date For Hire by Jennifer Shirk, on sale for just 99¢! Find it online: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Newsletter Her Unexpected Detour by Kyra Jacobs Find it online: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Newsletter Wife for the Weekend by Ophelia London Find it online: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Newsletter The Bad Boy's Baby by Cindi Madsen Find it online: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Newsletter And be sure to stop by the other carnival booths for more fun and giveaways and each day stop by the Facebook event page to chat with the authors.

ARC Review: Crazy for the Competition by Cindi Madsen

Title:  Crazy for the Competition (Hope Springs, #2) Author: Cindi Madsen Publisher/Publication Date: Entangled Bliss; June 9, 2015 Format/Source:  E-ARC, Publisher/NetGalley Genre:  Contemporary Romance Book Summary from Goodreads The road to trouble is paved with sweet temptation…  Always the rebel in her ultra-conservative family, Quinn Sakata dreams of quitting her dad's real-estate business and restoring the old Mountain Ridge Bed and Breakfast in her hometown of Hope Springs. Except that Quinn's not the only person bidding on it. Worse still, her competitor is her high school crush, Heath Brantley, who is all kinds of ripped, tattooed hotness... So much for her "nice, conservative boys" rule. Heath has his own reasons for bidding on Mountain Ridge, and he won't give in without a fight - even to the red-lipped hottie with a sailor's mouth. But when their rivalry shifts into an unexpected zing of chemistry, Heath realizes he's in deep trouble. Because it's inevitable that emotions will get involved, and he needs to keep his eyes on the prize before they both get hurt.  Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble My Thoughts I simply love this book where being authentic and falling in love is what it's all about. I loved this book....Did I mention that I loved this book??? The characters were amazing. Madsen did an excellent job of presenting the difficulties and possibility of a young woman upholding her principles while on the dating scene with her depiction of Quinn, who was always trying to live up to the standards of her traditional Japanese parents.  Initially, Quinn was dating the ultra-conservative; bring home to your parents type of guy…what's his name??? Well it doesn't really matter because his reaction to Quinn's beliefs made this character unlikable and forgettable, so moving on. Now Heath on the other hand, well he was simply swoon worthy and I had to root for him the moment he arrived on the scene. Quinn's reaction to seeing him was priceless. I just couldn’t believe the words that were coming out her mouth. She is definitely a feisty and opinionated character. Heath is the type of bad boy you love to love. Yes, he might have been a rugged mechanic with tattoos and piercings, who was competing for the same site for his business as Quinn, and he might not have been the conservative wealthy man, but he was compassionate. What wasn't to like about him??? So, although this wasn’t the typical romance novel with the typical bad boy, Crazy for the Competition was another fantabulous read by Cindi Madsen. Rating 5/5 I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher/NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. You can check out my review of Second Chance Ranch by Cindi Madsen here. Visit Cindi Madsen's website to find out more!!!

ARC Review: Second Chance Ranch by Cindi Madsen

Title: Second Chance Ranch (A Hope Springs Novel)

Author: Cindi Madsen

Publisher/Publication Date: Entangled Bliss, September 15, 2014

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format/Source: E-ARC, Publisher

Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Goodreads

Book Summary From Goodreads

Sadie Hart has a plan: return to her small town of Hope Springs so she can regain her confidence—and bank account—before giving one more shot to her country music dream. The dream that means more to her than anything. The dream she chose over her high school sweetheart, the brooding and sinfully handsome Royce Dixon.

Royce has moved on from his memories of the beautiful Sadie. Now he’s focused solely on running Second Chance Ranch, where he rehabilitates troubled teens through ranch work. But when he needs a new employee and Sadie’s the only one to volunteer, he has no choice but to offer his old flame a job.

Whether riding a horse with the wind in her hair or mucking out the stalls, Sadie can still get Royce’s heart beating like no one else. But Nashville is her dream, and Royce can’t settle for second best.

My Thoughts

Are you a romance junkie at heart? Looking for a quick enjoyable read? Well I think you'll love Second Chance Ranch by Cindi Madsen. Sadie and Royce’s story is a second chance romance. And I was happy to find that it took time for Sadie and Royce to warm up to each other the second time around. It wasn't just another oh I'm so glad that I found you again, let's just rekindle this flame without dealing with the past.  No, Sadie and Royce had to work a little this time around before they began to act on the sparks that were flying, which created a realistic story in which Royce was cautious and Sadie struggled with finding her happy place in life--Royce's arms versus a singing career or both. At times the story took on a serious tone as they both struggled with their feelings, but overall it was a fun, sweet romance novel.

For those of you familiar with Accidentally Married on Purpose by Rachel Harris, Sadie is a familiar character. She was briefly introduced as she sang at a concert featuring Tyler Blue, a musician who was married to Sherry Robicheaux after a wild night. I just loved how Sadie's character transitioned smoothly from one story to the next. Although the stories were written by two different authors, I found it impressive that Sadie maintained the same likable characteristics in both. In Harris’s novel she seemed to have an aura that made her likable as she performed. In Madsen’s novel she was liked by an aggressive cat, she was liked by the horses, she was liked by troubled teens, but could she convince Royce who had a history with her that she was so likable? In Harris’s novel Sadie performed a song entitled "Next Time" that was about heartbreak and past mistakes. She gave a powerful performance, and now that I've learned about her past, it seems that this song may have been heartfelt. Sadie's personal journey was consistent with what was previously revealed about her, and I think Madsen did an amazing job of bringing her story to life.

Other books I've read by Cindi Madsen are All the Broken Pieces and Act like You Love Me. I simply love the character development in her stories and the captivating storylines that leave you wanting more. Needless to say, I am looking forward to reading future work by this author.

Rating 4.5/5

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, thank you.