CelebrateLit Book Review & Giveaway: Storing Up Trouble by Jen Turano

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About the Author

Book:  Storing Up Trouble
Author: Jen Turano
Genre: Christian Historical Romance
Release Date: May 6, 2020

Storing Up Trouble

When Beatrix Waterbury’s train is disrupted by a heist, scientist Norman Nesbit comes to her aid. After another encounter, he is swept up in the havoc she always seems to attract—including the attention of the men trying to steal his research—and they’ll soon discover the curious way feelings can grow between two very different people in the midst of chaos.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Turano_Jen1

Jen Turano, (www.jenturano.com) a USA Today bestselling author, has written four historical romance series. She is a member of ACFW and RWA and lives in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Visit her website at www.jenturano.com.

My Thoughts

Storing Up Trouble
by Jen Turano
Book 3 of the American Heiresses series
Rating: 4/5

Jen Turano never disappoints! Her stories are always quirky and fun and full of adventure!

This story focuses on Miss Beatrix Waterbury who is on her way to Chicago to stay with her eccentric aunt. When she is robbed on her train, she befriends a Mr. Norman Nesbit who has important scientific research that must be protected. In their efforts to deter the robbery, they must join together to get back to Chicago.

Once back in Chicago, Aunt Gladys welcomes Beatrix and tells her she must begin working as a sales girl at the Marshall Field and Company department store in order to experience what it’s really like as a woman in need. Growing up as an heiress, Beatrix has never been treated poorly or unfairly and Aunt Gladys knows that some experience will make Beatrix even more sympathetic to the suffragette movement. While working there, Norman starts visiting the store more often and befriends Beatrix as they continue to unravel who is behind the train heist. When more attempts at stealing his research continue, Norman fears for Beatrix’s safety and realizes he might be developing feelings for her. As Beatrix teaches Norman to look outside himself, Norman realizes that Beatrix has changed his world for the better.

This story was so full of great characters (some from the other books in the series) and I loved all the different interactions they had with each other. As someone who loves science, I was intrigued by Norman’s character and wanted to start psychoanalyzing his behavior but I loved how he came to see how his behavior was affecting others. Because of his intelligence, his family seemed to dismiss his rudeness or self-centeredness but Beatrix wouldn’t stand for it. She really did open up his eyes to how his actions were affecting those he loved around him. It was really interesting to see the interplay between the main characters and hear their thoughts. I always enjoy the intermix of history and fiction.

I highly recommend this book to those that enjoy historical romance with action, humor and a bit of mystery.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley and CelebrateLit for providing me with an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.

More from Jen

Thank you so much for visiting me on my Celebrate Lit tour as we celebrate the release of my latest novel, “Storing Up Trouble.” I’m delighted to be here, and I reached out to my street team to help me with the questions you’ll find below. I’m hoping the answers to those questions will allow you to learn just a bit about my new book, as well as allow you to get to know me better. With that said, here we go!

Can you tell us a little about “Storing Up Trouble?”

I’d be delighted to tell you about my latest book. “Storing Up Trouble” is the third book in the “American Heiress” series, but you don’t need to read the first two books in that series (“Flights of Fancy” “Diamond in the Rough” to understand what’s going on. I’ve been writing my books more as stand alone stories, and “Storing Up Trouble” is no exception to that. With that said, this book centers around Miss Beatrix Waterbury and Mr. Norman Nesbit. Beatrix, unfortunately, has annoyed her mother to such an extent that she finds herself banished from New York and on her way to Chicago to spend time with her aunt, a lady Beatrix remembers as being a querulous sort. She, being Beatrix, a lady who lands herself in trouble at the most unexpected of times, soon finds herself a victim of a train heist. An unlikely hero in the form of Mr. Norman Nesbit, a gentleman with a brilliant mind but relatively few social graces, comes to her rescue, and from the moment they disembark from the train, they find themselves thrust into one escapade after another.

In “Storing Up Trouble,” is there a character you’d like to be friends with in real life, or better yet, a character you’d avoid at all costs?

I actually have an answer to both parts of that question. Miss Theodosia Robinson is a lady I would love to count as a friend because she’s loyal to a fault, and is a friend who’ll be there for you, no matter if you want to delve into an unusual scientific experiment, or take a jaunt to your local department store to do a bit of shopping. As for who I’d avoid at all cost – Mrs. George Blossom, who has a very small part in the story, but she’s a customer at Marshal Fields & Company who embraces an air of superiority over the sales girls, and I’ve never been one to enjoy people like that.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?

That’s easy. Being Dominic’s mom. He was definitely a handful when he was little, which is why he’s an only child, but it’s been incredibly rewarding to watch him grow over the years. He recently graduated from college with a degree in engineering, and seeing him land a grown up job and begin to embrace the whole adulting thing makes me prouder than any book I’ve written or other job I’ve held.

What was the inspiration behind “Storing Up Trouble?”

There were quite a few things that inspired me to write this book. I’d set another one of my books, “Caught by Surprise” in Chicago, and because of the research I did for that book, research I wasn’t able to fit into that story, I knew I wanted to revisit that city at some point. Beatrix Waterbury gave me the perfect excuse to travel back there. I wanted to take her out of her usual setting of NYC, so off she went to Chicago, on a train ride that definitely turned concerning. I had also picked up a few research books about Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison and I’ve been itching to create a character after those brilliant gentlemen. Norman Nesbit turned into that gentleman, although I have to admit that some of the science Nikola and Thomas used was way over my head. My son, the engineer, tried to explain it to me, but I believe at one point I might have been drooling, and not in the good way, but the bored way. That’s when Norman really began to develop because I thought it would be amusing to have a character who was passionate about his field of study, but most of the people he tried to share that passion with had no idea what he was talking about and always got a bit of a dazed expression in their eyes as he waxed on and on about double-electrical currents.

What fun facts did you uncover while doing research for “Storing Up Trouble” but weren’t able to fit into the story?

There was so much fodder for additional storylines just with the research I did on Marshal Field and his department store. Did you know that the main store in Chicago burned down doing the Great Fire of 1871 and…it burned down several times after that? Who knew? There was also a lot of drama surrounding Marshal and his partner for years, Mr. Levi Zeigler Leiter. They had different ideas about how the store should evolve, which resulted in Marshal forcing Levi to sell his shares of the company to him, at which point the store turned from  Field, Leiter, & Company to Marshal Fields Company. It was also interesting to learn that Mr. Fields was notorious for paying his workers low wages, but those workers accepted those wages because of the prestige that came with working at his store. If you worked at any other store, you were considered common, but to work at Marshal Fields was a feather in your cap, even if you weren’t earning as much as you could have earned at another store.

What are quirky little things you keep on your desk?

At the moment, I have one little pig with googly eyes, one cow with googly eyes, and then another small pig that a reader sent me because she really liked Matilda in “A Match of Wits” and thought this little pig she found at a store was exactly what Matilda would look like.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Oddly enough, no, it never crossed my mind until Dominic was in third grade and we decided to write a book together after finishing this horrible series about this bird. That book was never meant for publication, but it did have me remembering that I had, at one point in time before I became a stay-at-home-mom, enjoyed using my brain. I started experimenting with different genres and learned everything I could about the publishing industry. It took me five years to find an agent, and then she sold “A Change of Fortune” to Bethany House, and I’ve been writing for them ever since.

Any words of advice for aspiring writers?

I get this question a lot, and I always answer by saying “Have an honest talk with yourself about what you really want to achieve with your writing.” It’s perfectly fine to want to write because you’re interested in turning it into a career. However, with that said, a writer needs to understand that writing and publishing are two different creatures. Publishing is a daunting business, and it’ll take a lot of perseverance to find success with it. With that said, if you have raw talent and are a story teller at heart, you should write all the time and do whatever you can to learn how to improve your craft.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on a new series right now – “The Bleeker Street Inquiry Agency.” The first book, “To Steal a Heart” releases in November, 2020. It’s about Miss Gabriella Goodhue, who spent her childhood living on the mean streets in Five Points. She’s currently living in a boarding house on Bleeker Street in New York City, and when a fellow resident gets unjustly accused of theft, Gabriella, along with the other ladies living in the boarding house, take it upon themselves to try and clear her name. That’s the beginning of the Bleeker Street Agency, and hopefully the ladies will enjoy much success as the series continues.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope all of you get an opportunity to read “Storing Up Trouble!”

Wishing you all the best,

Jen

Blog Stops

The Avid Reader, May 23
Godly Book Reviews, May 23
Robin’s Nest, May 23
Locks, Hooks and Books, May 23
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 24
Rebecca Tews, May 24
Texas Book-aholic, May 24
Novelscorner, May 24
Among the Reads, May 25
Inklings and notions, May 25
deb’s Book Review, May 25
Reflections From My Bookshelves, May 26
Hebrews 12 Endurance, May 26
reviewingbooksplusmore, May 26
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, May 27
Losing the Busyness, May 27
For Him and My Family, May 27
Simple Harvest Reads, May 27 (Guest Review from Mindy Houng)
Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, May 28
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, May 28
Inside the Wong Mind, May 28
Mia Reads, May 29
Read Review Rejoice, May 29
Becka Jiménez, May 29
Betti Mace, May 30
Blogging With Carol, May 30
Life of Literature, May 31
D’S QUILTS & BOOKS, May 31
Emily Yager, May 31
Splashes of Joy, May 31
The Collaborative Press, June 1
Stories By Gina, June 1
Hookmeinabook, June 1
Blessed & Bookish, June 2
Older & Smarter?, June 2
The Artist Librarian, June 2
Blossoms and Blessings, June 2
Through the Fire Blogs, June 3
Beauty in the Binding, June 3
Mary Hake, June 3
amandainpa, June 3
Wishful Endings, June 4
EmpowerMoms, June 4
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, June 4
Pause for Tales, June 4
KarenSueHadley, June 5
Raining Butterfly Kisses, June 5
With a Joyful Noise, June 5
Hallie Reads, June 5

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Jen is giving away the the grand prize package of all three books in the American Heiresses series and a $25 Barnes & Noble eGift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/fb8f/storing-up-trouble-celebration-tour-giveaway

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