Blog Tour: Waking Up in the Land of Glitter by Cathy Cano-Murillo

From the Publisher's Website:

With glue guns, glitter, twigs, or yarn, the ordinary can become extraordinary . . . especially at La Pachanga. Owned by Estrella "Star" Esteban's family, the restaurant has a rep for two things: good food and great art. La Pachanga brings people together-even when it looks like they couldn't be further apart.

One ill-fated evening, Star jeopardizes her family's business, her relationship with her boyfriend, and her future career. To redeem herself, she agrees to participate in a national craft competition, teaming up with her best friend, Ofelia-a secretly troubled mother whose love for crafting borders on obsession-and local celebrity Chloe Chavez-a determined television personality with more than one skeleton in her professional closet. If these unlikely allies can set aside their differences, they'll find strength they never knew they had, and learn that friendship, like crafting, is truly an art form.

About the Author:

With a life motto of “Crafts! Drama! Glitter!” Crafty Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo is a creative force of nature. A former syndicated columnist for The Arizona Republic, she is the founder of the award-winning Web site, CraftyChica.com and the author of seven nonfiction craft books and a Web series on LifetimeTV.com. Kathy has a Crafty Chica line of art supplies that are sold nationwide. She also has been featured in numerous media outlets such as The New York Times Magazine, NPR’s Weekend Edition, USA Today, Bust, and Latina magazine. She has shared her crafty ideas on local television, as well as on Sí TV, HGTV, and DIY network. She has been writing stories longer than she has been crafting. Inspired by Judy Blume and Erma Bombeck, she caught the literary bug in grade school, where she used to draw a picture and then write a colorful story to go with it. It’s a creativity exercise she still practices to this day! Kathy lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband, two kids, and five Chihuahuas. This is her first novel.



Waking Up in the Land of Glitter is available at Amazon.com















My Opinion:
Oh, how I enjoyed this book. It was fast paced, funny and a joy to read. After the recent string of thrillers it was so nice to just sit and read a light, cheerful book. In fact, I sat and read it in one sitting! The characters were fun, the plot engaging and the ending happy.

Estrella (Star), our heroine, goes on a bender one night and paints happy faces on a mural at her parents' restaurant where she ostensibly works. But Star is a bit of a lost soul and not too grounded in the realities of life. To make matters worse the mural was created by her love, Theo.

Theo and her parents are all disgusted with her lack of focus; but there was a reason Star did what she did. Her father gives her an ultimatum; shape up by December 1 or she's out! Theo also decides he cannot live with all of the upheaval and starts upon a new path.

Into the mix comes "Crafy Chloe" - a name with more than one meaning - a local news celebrity who meets Star when she comes to report on the damage to the mural. She is trying to claw her way to the top of the crafts universe any way she can - and she doesn't need anyone to help her. Or does she?

Ofie is Star's best friend and the world's worst crafter - but no one will tell her this for fear of hurting her feelings. We all know someone like this, don't we?

The three come together along with a very talented young man to turn the annual Craft Olympics upside down! You won't want to miss the fun that ensues. Of course lessons are learned along the way.

I really did enjoy this book. It was fun to get a peak into the crafting world and I felt like I wanted to travel further with the characters.

Disclosure:  I received a gratis copy of Waking Up in the Land of Glitter from The Hachette Book Group for review. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by the receipt of the book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.