Guest Blog with author Lisa Mondello

Guest Blog with author Lisa Mondello

Hello to all of my lovely readers! I have an appropriate post for you all today for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the holidays are in full swing. Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and SHEESH! the grocery store is a mad house! I am beyond happy I got all of my needed ingredients over a week early because some of those shoppers are straight brutal, Yo! And to go with the almost-Thanksgiving time, Ms. Mondello has provided a guest post about Thanksgiving and her favorite recipe. Yay! Ridiculously appropriate because just the other day I decided to add a recipe page to the blog. I am going to be baking up a storm and wanted a place to keep track of the recipes I use and what better place than the blog? EXACTLY! GENIUS! And the next few days will start my recipe posts so stay tuned. Weeeee! And, now that the holidays have arrived, it is time to start talking about holiday-themed books to read. SO … kicking off the holiday spirit is Ms. Mondello’s book, ALL I WANT OR CHRISTMAS IS YOU. See? It’s a festival of appropriateness. So let’s get started! Please allow me to once again introduce to the blog:

**LISA  MONDELLO**

Lisa Mondello (a.k.a. LA Mondello) has held many jobs in her life but being a published authors is the last job she'll ever have. She's not retiring! She blames the creation of the personal computer for her leap into writing novels. Otherwise, she'd still be penning stories with paper and pen.  Her first book, All I Want for Christmas is You, was the winner of the Golden Quill contest for Best First Book and to date has had over 400,000 downloads worldwide.

She is currently the author of 14 novels under the name Lisa Mondello and LA Mondello.

You can find out more about Ms. Mondello in the following places:

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

**GUEST  POST**

**Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes**

I love food.  I know I’m not alone in this.  The holidays always have me struggling because there is just so much great food to make during the holidays and you can’t possibly eat it all!  So I pick and choose those favorite things that make each holiday special.

Take Thanksgiving.  Most people love to make those pumpkin and apple pies on Thanksgiving. They’re good.  But my favorite Thanksgiving treat isn’t even a dessert!!  It’s my mother’s Sweet Potato Casserole.  It’s meant to be served with turkey dinner.  But truth be known, it tastes more like a dessert than most of the confections on the dessert table.  Okay, call me strange.  But when everyone is looking for the sweets after dinner, I’m looking for leftover Sweet Potato Casserole.

I’ve seen a ton of Sweet Potato Casserole recipes, but I like my mom’s the best.  No marshmallows or pecans, but with a healthy dose of butter and brown sugar on top.

What about you?  What’s your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?  If it’s Sweet Potato Casserole, like mine, do you like it with marshmallows and pecans or without?  I know there are strong feelings on the subject, so let me know!

~Lisa Mondello

**ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU**

**Fate With A Helping Hand, Book 1**

Genre: Contemporary Romance

ASIN:  B005KDG236

Number of pages: 192

Word Count: 40,000

Buy Links:

Amazon               Barnes and Noble              iTunes              Smashwords

**BLURB**

Sometimes fate needs a little hand...

Santa Claus is going to have a rough season... Lauren Alexander is raising her daughter alone. Abandoned by her family for her decision to keep her daughter Kristen, she has done a pretty good job for the last six years. Or she thought she had. That's why she is crushed when little Kristen gives up her wish for a toy or goodie and instead asks Santa for a present for her mother. She wants Santa to bring a Daddy. Delivering Daddies isn't Santa's bag.

But this Santa has a plan...

Kyle Preston knows what it is like to be abandoned too. Luckily he found the support of loving adoptive parents and has turned himself into one of the most successful Real Estate developers in town.
Building a house is easy. Building someone's trust is a whole other story. But with a little helping hand, a little Christmas magic can make all the difference in the world.

**EXCERPT**

"You don't have to be afraid. This will explain it all. I promise you." He smiled warmly and Lauren wanted to trust him if only to believe in simple kindness.

With shaking hands, she took the piece of paper, warm from being in the pocket close to Kyle's body. She held it up straight so that she could see Kyle while reading the words on the paper.

"Dear Santa..." she read out loud, then read the next part silently. "Oh, no," she groaned.

"I know. That's just how I felt."

Lauren shot him a skeptical glance. "How did you get this?"

"Kristen gave it to me."

"That's impossible. Mrs. Hopkins just helped her with it this afternoon and-"
"And she gave it to me in the Mall," Kyle finished for her.

She looked at him quizzically, still trying to comprehend the course of events leading up to his seizure of her daughter's precious note.

"It's not that hard to figure out, Lauren," Kyle said warmly.

His dark eyes gleamed with the light from the lamppost. He wore no hat to protect his head from the falling snow. Now his hair was filled with powdered flakes, matting it down.

His grin was bright and wide as he informed her, "I'm Santa Claus."
Fate with a Helping Hand Series includes:

Book 1 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU
Book 2 THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
Book 3 THE KNIGHT AND MAGGIE'S BABY

So what did you all think? Have you read Ms. Mondello before? Maybe you have even read this book before. Tell us what you thought. If you haven’t read either, tell us if you would be likely to read this story and why. And don’t forget to answer Ms. Mondello’s question:

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?  If it’s Sweet Potato Casserole, like mine, do you like it with marshmallows and pecans or without?

I can’t wait to read your responses! Thanks so much for spending some time with us today! And don’t forget … if you enjoyed what you read today, be sure to support this fabulous author and buy the book! Be sure to come back for some great recipes over the next few days. See you all soon and until next time …

HAPPY READING!!!