Bengay Cold Therapy review and giveaway (and birthday!)

Seems appropriate that today, which happens to be my birthday, would be the day that I would review the new Bengay Cold Therapy. Because, you know, you get older, you get some new aches and pains. Especially when you try to do run faster than your younger self.


That faster running sometimes comes with a price. Not always -- because the other thing that comes with age is a little bit of wisdom and, therefore, smarter running -- but sometimes. So, I've been a good test subject for Bengay the past few weeks because I've been training for this 5k coming up on Saturday. I really -- really -- want to run well in that race so I've been running some fast intervals and tough hilly runs in preparation.


My knee and hamstring have not completely cooperated. After my last two speed workouts, my right knee and hamstring both felt wonky. I did the usual routine of foam rolling and stretching and added in some Bengay. I was immediately transported back to lacrosse season during my sophomore year in college when I had a problem ankle that I used to load up with old-school Bengay.


Now, I don't know about you, but when you get to be a certain age (hey, I turned 41 today!) being transported -- if only in your mind -- to your 19-year-old life isn't such a bad thing. In fact, it's kinda OK. So, there I was, remembering those lax games when we'd rock-out in the travel van:

That's right, a whole van of college girls singing along with crazy Joe. What a sight.


Anyway . . . 


The Bengay. I was invited to try the new Cold Therapy before it hits the shelves in June. As I said, I tried it on my pesky knee and hamstring and I liked how it worked. The menthol scent -- which is what probably comes to mind when you think of Bengay -- is strong at first but it goes away fairly quickly. That's nice because who wants to walk around advertising your ailments by the smell of your pain relief? Not me. 


The gel went on smooth and wasn't sticky. Yes, I had to wash it off my hands afterward but neither my knee nor my hammie felt sticky after application. What's more, I felt that the Bengay worked as it was supposed to. No, it didn't take away my knee or hammie pain 100% but it did reduce it substantially, enough for me to continue to use it and plan to keep Bengay in my arsenal. Of course, I hope that I won't have much cause to use it but knowing that I am getting older and I still want to get faster means I just might rely on the Bengay now and then. 


To buy


Bengay Cold Therapy will be available at most food, drug and mass retailers (like Target, etc.) starting in June. It has a suggested retail price ranging from $8.49 to $9.99 for a 4oz tube. You can download a coupon for Bengay Cold Therapy HERE. 


To win


Lucky readers! TWO of you will win a tube of Bengay Cold Therapy to try out for yourselves. Entering is simple: Leave me a comment and let me know you'd like to try it out!


Additional entries:

As always, you can gain extra entries. Remember, though, you must complete the required entry first! (Leave one comment per entry for the additional ones to count):

• Follow this blog, or let me know that you already do (leave a comment)
• Become a fan of The Happy Runner on Facebook, or let me know that you already are (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from Facebook or Twitter (do as often as you'd like, just leave a comment each time)
• Link to this giveaway from your blog (leave a comment)

This giveaway will run through Monday, June 6 at 11:59pm EST and the winners will be announced on Tuesday.


AND . . . 


DON'T FORGET THESE TWO THINGS!!!!


1. My Saucony giveaway ends on Thursday.


2. I still need your vote! (Did I mention that today is my birthday? What a great gift . . . voting for the Happy Runner . . . )

Have a great day, everyone!


~ Felice


Review/giveaway disclosure: I was sent a tube of Bengay Cold Therapy to review. I was not otherwise compensated and the opinions expressed are my own.

Winner, discount, and Flash!

Happy Friday, everyone!

This one's a bit of a mish-mash.

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The Pirate's Booty giveaway is over and I used random.org to pick a winner. Thanks to all who entered. The winner is  . . . the lovely ajh over at Age Groups Rock. Congrats! Send me an email at felicehalf at yahoo dot com with your address so you can get your booty!

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I recently reviewed Sun Chlorella (HERE) and I have to say I'm still enjoying it.

Some of you have mentioned that you are interested in checking it out and today is your lucky day! You can try out a 20 day supply of Sun Chlorella and Sun Eleuthero tablets for a discounted price of $39.95. The discount page is HERE and the code to enter is BLOGSAVE11. 

Enjoy!

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Flash for your Friday!

No doubt, there was some very important Flash-rific business to attend to. You can't see it in the photo but there was a lot of "Flash, to the rescue!" going on.

And on and on.

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Don't forget to enter my Saucony giveaway and . . . please vote! THANKS!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Good luck to everyone who is racing.

~ Felice

Saucony giveaway!

I told you I was way behind on my reviews and giveaways and I wasn't kidding -- here's my second one this week with more to come over the next few days. Brace yourselves!

Today I have RUNNING SHOES for you, people. Yup, pretty much the numero-uno piece of gear that every runner needs. OK, some of you chesty runners, and all of my fellow breast-feeders out there, would probably vote for sports bras but, you know, running shoes are up there on the list of important gear. Unless you are running barefoot then you need running shoes. And a good pair is always better than a crappy one so, if you're anything like me you end up spending a few hundred dollars on shoes each year.

Yikes, right? I know. But, c'mon, running is worth it!

So, anyway, about these running shoes that I have for you. Well, it's actually Onlineshoes.com that has them for you. They have offered to give one of my lucky readers $100 to spend on Saucony running shoes! You can pick out whatever you'd like. Maybe even something minimalist, if you're so inclined, like these bad boys:

The stylish black and pink Saucony Hattori. That's what I would go for, because they look ever so slick. And probably fast. And who couldn't use a little slick speed in their life? But, like I said, you could pick any of the Saucony shoes -- and Onlineshoes.com has plenty of them.

Do you want to win $100 to spend on Sauconys at OnlineShoes.com?

To enter -- leave me a comment and let me why need some new shoes.

Additional entries:

As always, you can gain extra entries. Remember, though, you must complete the required entry first! (Leave one comment per entry for the additional ones to count):

• Follow this blog, or let me know that you already do (leave a comment)
• Become a fan of The Happy Runner on Facebook, or let me know that you already are (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from Facebook or Twitter (do as often as you'd like, just leave a comment each time)
• Like OnlineShoes.com on Facebook and let them know that the Happy Runner sent you! (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from your blog (leave a comment)

This giveaway will run through Thursday, June 2 at 11:59pm EST and the winner will be announced on Friday.

If you can't wait to find out if you win, OnlineShoes.com is also having a Memorial Day special with 20% off regular orders of $80 and up. The code to use for that is 1SUN.

Good luck!

~ Felice

PS: While you're busy entering, don't forget to vote!

Hello, Wednesday.

Just a quickie post today because I'm watching a friend's two girls today and with four kids in the house, I don't imagine I'll get free time to be my usual creative, entertaining self. You don't think I'm usually creative? Or entertaining? Yikes. Tough crowd.

No matter. Here's what I have for you today:

• I have a giveaway running right now. Pirate's Booty!
• I'm so far behind on other reviews and giveaways it's not even funny. But just think of the goodies awaiting you!
• My birthday is coming up. Soon.
• I had a great, Garmin-free run yesterday. 
• Speedwork tonight. I will own those mile repeats. Own them.
• The Freihofer's Run for Women is in less than two weeks. I've been writing a lot about it over HERE. 
• I still need your help to stay in the Top 25! You can vote once every 24 hours. Please consider voting for me -- I would really, really, really appreciate it! And, remember you can vote for some of the other great moms while you're there, too. Just, please, if you like my blog, give me a vote!

Have a great day, everyone!

~ Felice

Pirate's Booty gets generous (review & giveaway)

I was recently invited to try out Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar snacks, which meant that my son -- snacker that he is -- tried them out. OK, yeah, I ate my fair share but he certainly tried his best to hog them all.

Not that I minded too much because I know Pirate's Booty to be fairly healthy snacks since they are baked, not fried in oil like a lot of other chips and snacks like that. And Conal and I enjoyed them. The puffs are light and cheesy and just salty enough to satisfy. I could probably eat a whole bag of them, truth be told!

Anyway, so we liked the Pirate's Booty. But, here's something new about them: In partnership with that little Johnny Depp movie that came out last week, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Pirate's Booty has released limited edition packages that look like this:

Aargh!

For each limited edition package sold, Pirate's Booty will make a donation to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, an organization that helps young people, especially those in need, to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens, with a goal of donating $100,000.

Also, as part of the program, Pirate’s Booty is offering a chance to win a “Fountain of Youth” themed Caribbean vacation to Casa De Campo in the Dominican Republic. OK, hi! Yes, I would love to go to the DR. For real. And you probably would, too, so head over to www.PiratesBooty.com for more information and to enter for a chance to win.

To buy

You can find Pirate's Booty at most grocery stores. Near me, Hannaford, Price Chopper and the Honest Weight Food Coop all stock the snacks. You can also buy Pirate's Bootyonline from Amazon where a pack of 12 4-oz bags goes for $24.48. And, you can also buy them direct from the company (same price as Amazon).

To win

Want to try out Pirate's Booty for yourself? Lucky you! Just leave me a comment and let me know that you'd like to win and you'll be entered.

Additional entries:

As always, you can gain extra entries. Remember, though, you must complete the required entry first! (Leave one comment per entry for the additional ones to count):

• Follow this blog, or let me know that you already do (leave a comment)
• Become a fan of The Happy Runner on Facebook, or let me know that you already are (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from Facebook or Twitter (do as often as you'd like, just leave a comment each time)
• Like Pirate's Booty on Facebook (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from your blog (leave a comment)

This giveaway will run through Thursday, May 26 at 11:59pm EST and the winner will be announced on Friday.

Good luck!

~ Felice

Review/giveaway disclosure: I was sent a bag of Pirate's Booty to review. I was not compensated in any way for this review/giveaway and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

PS: It's the last week to vote!!

Advantages.

I took advantage of a lot of opportunities over the past few days.

Owen was away for the weekend. He left Friday around noon, when I was with the boys at Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party (who, by the way, freaks my almost 4 year old right out. Who knew? Not me, apparently. Yikes.), and didn't get back until late Sunday afternoon. Since my treadmill is kaput (boo!) I would not have the chance to run while he was out of town.

No matter. Before he took off and I went to the party, Owen said he would stay with the boys so I could go for a run. I took advantage of the opportunity and ran 4.5 quick-n-easy miles. What a treat to run in the morning and then actually get to take a shower.

That night, I took advantage of being husband-less and had some great girlfriends over for a moms night after the kids went to bed. I can't think of when the last time all 5 of us were together, so Friday was a much needed fun night. There were laughs:

Bridget and Stacey, laughing, shaking, and pointing.

On Saturday, Conal had his soccer photos and then we went to play at a playground and have a picnic. We also built extensive train tracks around the living room and read a bunch of books. After the boys went to bed, I took advantage of not being able to run and did some Exercise TV workouts. My arms are still cursing thanking me.

And then it was Sunday. Conal was ready for Owen to be home and so was I. When he got home in the afternoon, he was ready to spend some time with the boys so I took advantage of my free time and went out for a long(ish) run. Then I came back, showered, whipped up some grub and we all sat together for a nice family dinner.

Today, Owen had to stay home to do some work. He finished earlier than he thought he would so before he headed in to the office, he asked if I wanted to go for a run. Although I didn't have a run on the schedule for today, I sure as heck took advantage of the opportunity to run and went for an easy run in the wind.

Yep, I take advantage, whenever I can.

You never know what will happen tomorrow, folks, so run today!


Hope you all had a great weekend -- happy Monday!

And, hey! It's the last week of voting so, yeah, please?

THANKS!!!

~ Felice

Fast running. Winner. Giveaway.

Or, three things Thursday. Here they are:

Fast running

Speedwork was on the schedule for yesterday evening. I was worried about the rain but it held off and I actually had to wear my sunglasses. Crazy stuff!

My plan called for 8 x 400 @ 1:45 (7min/mi pace). I ran a one mile warm-up and then hit the intervals:

R1: 1:33 (started too fast)
R2: 1:29 (C'MON!)
R3: 1:39 (OK, getting better)
R4: 1:33 (too fast again)
R5: 1:31 (way too fast)
R6: 1:42 (yes! that's the way)
R7: 1:33 (wow, my body likes that pace, huh? third one at 1:33)
R8: 1:36 (good to be done)

And then I cooled down.

Yes, I know. I ran them too fast. That was not my intention. My intention was to run them at the prescribed pace so I could reap the most benefit but I went too fast. I don't know what to do about this, I really don't, because I run my intervals too fast almost every time. Next week I have mile repeats on the schedule and I'm usually better about running those closer to the correct pace so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, though, I will say that I felt really, really strong running each repeat. My legs and lungs felt great and this morning my legs are a little tired but mostly fine.

Winner

I chose the winner of the Running on Empty giveaway, using random.org. Thanks to everyone who entered! The winner of Marshall Ulrich's book is:

Lauren @ TheRunningCook

Congratulations, Lauren! Send me an email (felicehalf at yahoo dot com) with your address so you can get your copy of the book!

Giveaway


When I hosted the Sony W-Series MP3 player giveaway earlier this year, tons of you entered and that was great! Since there could only be two winners, that meant that tons of you missed out.

Never fear -- you have another chance! Lindsay over at Chasing the Kenyans is giving away two of the MP3 players  now through May 27th. So, pop on over there are enter to win. When you do, let her know that The Happy Runner sent you! Good luck!

Have a great day, everyone!

You can vote once 24 hours!
Please give me some love and vote for me -- and some of the other awesome moms on the list!
THANK YOU!!

~ Felice

Mack truck hicks?

Apparently, people don't know who I am.

They land on my blog after searching terms like:

Mack trucks hicks
Sexy tennis ball runners
Veiny feet
Kara Goucher
Runners belly

Now, I may live in upstate New York but I am no hick. And, people, you've seen the hamhocks so "sexy tennis ball runners?" Nope, not here. Veiny feet? Perhaps . . . and I guess I have written about Kara on a few occasions so that one might make sense. But runners belly? Pregnant belly, post-baby belly -- sure, yeah, I've got all of that covered.

Strange what terms people search for, isn't it? Stranger still to see what lands them on my site. When I looked at my list of search terms on Google analytics it was mostly boring: The Happy Runner, Happy Runner, mom runner, 5K training plans . . . you get the picture.

But, mack truck hicks?

What exactly are mack truck hicks? And why does Google think people will find them on my blog?

And why again, when I searched for mack trucks did this image come up?

I mean, it is so 100% true but, huh. Mack trucks, eh?

(And, yes, I would like to use that female-designed novelty shopping cart when I do my grocery shopping. I believe it would ROCK.)

Anyway, checking out the search terms was my little diversion this morning. Got a blog? Go check out yours!

Speedwork on the schedule for tonight. Still without a treadmill but that's OK, I'm getting used to my rainy runs. Yesterday's run was another drizzly one, today probably will be, too. Sigh.

Happy Wednesday!

And remember:

THANKS!!

~ Felice

Holy hamhocks!

When I'm racing, I pay little attention to what I look like. After picking out my outfit the night before, of course. During the race, I'm too busy concentrating on not stopping and other important tasks like that to think about whether I hold my neck in a weird way, or if I'm doing some ugly lip thing.

Too bad, because I'm often doing both of those things. Amanda was nice and sent me over some photos from the Mother's Day race earlier this month and, yeah, I gotta stop biting on my bottom lip.

Check out the evidence:

That is, without a doubt, an A-1 Bad Look. 

I really need to work on not biting my bottom lip when I run. I guess it is better than running with my tongue hanging out, but only marginally. Because, yikes. 

And, OK, while we're discussing bad looks let's go back to photo #2:

Can you say, HAMHOCKS?!?! Double-yikes. Look at those thighs! Friends, those aren't quads, they're QUINTS!  Quints!

Sheesh. Um, I'm gonna get on that. Now.

Have a good day, everyone! Don't forget the Running on Empty giveaway that ends tomorrow.

And . . . if you like my blog, even a little, please vote for me over at Circle of Moms! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

~ Felice

Rainy runs and Sun(ny) Chlorella.

What a rainy weekend! Fortunately, there were pockets of clear skies so Saturday morning's soccer game was a go, as was Friday evening's easy run, a nice 4.5-miler.

Saturday's run, however, was a different story. We had the soccer game in the morning and then a birthday party and my plan was to go for a fast 5-miler in the afternoon. But it was rainy and I have a treadmill so I wimped out and headed down to the basement to run on the 'mill. I know, ridiculous.

Bad idea.

I ran for a bit, not really finding any sort of groove, and then Conal came down and started to play soccer. He was kicking the ball around and I was running when there was a loud SQUACK-type of noise and the treadmill abruptly stopped. I grabbed on to the safety bar, probably screamed a little, and didn't know what was going on.

And then I looked down and saw the soccer ball. It was lodged in between the treadmill belt and the motor. Great. Suffice it to say that I don't have the treadmill at my disposal anymore, at least not until we spend a little time trying to fix it. Ugh.

Since I had only run 1.75 miles when the 'mill stopped, I ran outside in the drizzly rain for another 3 miles, but never got up to the speed that my plan called for. For Sunday, then, I decided to go a little faster than usual. The rain, this time, worked to my advantage. I had 6 miles on the schedule and it is 6.6 miles to my parents' house so I decided to run there, since we were going over for dinner. It was only sprinkling out when I started my run but about a mile in to the run it was pouring.

Yikes. I was soaked and chilly, which made me speed up. Never-mind that the route to my parents' house is really hilly, I ran strong averaging an 8:45 pace for the 6.6 miles. Thanks, rain!


Overall, and poor treadmill aside, three good runs!


*     *     *

On the less rainy side of things, I've been trying out Sun Chlorella recently. I had first heard about chlorella from Ironman Brendan Brazier, either in his book Thrive (check it out here)or in an interview, not sure. Anyway, I was interested in it so when I was contacted to review Sun Chlorella I was happy to.

Here is some information on chlorella. It's a green algae that lives in fresh water as a single-celled plant. It's dubbed a "super-food" because it is nutrient dense (full of vitamin C, beta-carotene, chlorophyll, lutein, vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, niacin, folic acid, biotin, choline, lipoic acid, calcium, zinc, magnesium, iron and chlorella growth factor, among others) and because it detoxifies your body. According to the material from Sun Chlorella, their chlorella granules can absorb pesticides in the food that you consume, helping to make what you eat healthier. The chlorella growth factor is "a nucleotide-peptide complex of substances found only in chlorella." It "may help to enhance your body's natural defense system activity, help to remove the multitude of impurities in your body, and renew cellular strength and integrity."

Yeah, sign me up for that!

Now, I have to confess that, at first, I was nervous to try the Sun Chlorella granules. Call me weird but I was a little apprehensive about eating algae. I first drank it in water, with my dinner and it was OK. But only so.

The next day I tried it in my smoothie (plain yogurt, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, chia seeds and, now, chlorella granules). It didn't change the look of my smoothie:

And the taste wasn't bad! In fact it tasted good, more or less like my regular smoothie. So that's how I've been having the granules, in my smoothies. My 3-year-old drinks a small cup of smoothie every day with me and he enjoys the ones made with chlorella just as much as the ones without. A win there, for sure.

Now, here's the question: Have a noticed any difference in my energy or overall health? Tough to say. Unfortunately, I think it is hard to judge how well supplements work, especially for someone like me. I'm still breastfeeding my 7-month old and I haven't had a full, uninterrupted night's sleep in I don't know how long.

I do know that I've been running well, even with so little sleep, and I've been recovering well from my workouts, even at my -- ahem -- advanced age. Could chlorella have something to do with those things? Maybe. People swear by it and the health claims are strong. I like it and haven't noticed any downside so I'm going to continue consuming it. 

My goal now is to find some new and different recipes and ways to use chlorella. Smoothies are great but it would be nice to eat it in other ways. I'm thinking that it might be good to add to salad dressing, for starters. I'll have to let you know how that works out!

You can learn a lot more about Sun Chlorella on their web site.

Have you tried chlorella? Do you have any good recipes to share? 

Review disclosure: I was sent samples of Sun Chlorella for review. I was not otherwise compensated and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.


*     *     *

I hope you all had a great weekend! Don't forget to enter my Running on Empty giveaway. AND! If you like my little blog, please vote for me on Circle of Moms! Thank you!

Have a good week.

~ Felice

Running on Empty, review & giveaway

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.


Read on for the review! 


I was checking out some books at the library the other day, Dean Karnazes' Run!and the Pfitzinger book (you know, this one).Because I can dream, right?

Anyway, the librarian and I started talking about running and running books and whether or not she should check out Dean's books for her son, who runs. Well, yeah. Absolutely, I told her. He's inspirational and all that.

So we talked about Dean and his exploits and then I said something along the lines of, "you've got to check out this other book I just read. Running on Empty by Marshall Ulrich. He ran across the country, too. At 57 years old! He's insane and amazing."

Just like that. I was making a plug. Unsolicited. So, take that to mean that what I write in this here review is heartfelt.

I read the book. I liked it a lot. I liked the story, the journey, the love of running that Ulrich quite obviously has. That's the short of it. Now here's the long:

Marshall Ulrich is a nut. He has run all over the world, for super-long distances, facing extremely tough challenges and obstacles and he continues to go back for more. He's run over 100 races of 100+ miles, climbed Mt. Everest, won Badwater several times, run the Leadville Trail 100 and Pikes Peak Marathon in the same weekend . . . it goes on and on. He's one tough ultramarthoning dude.

And at 57 he decided to run across these United States of America, from San Francisco to New York City.

The book chronicles the 52 days of his transcontinental run, sharing the details of the monster undertaking and, more importantly, sharing Ulrich's thoughts, feelings, and reflections. He'd faced substantial loss in his life and, for him, running across the country helped him sort out some of his feelings about that loss. He delves in to some of what originally drove him to run -- including the death of his first wife at a very young age -- and I found the back-story just as interesting as the one about The Run.

And the story about The Run was definitely interesting. And inspiring. No, there is no way I would ever in a million years attempt such a thing (not even close) but I enjoyed reading about Ulrich's journey. So much of what he encountered on the run and how he dealt with it could be applied to any run.

For example, when he was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis after running about 700 miles, he still had over 2300 miles to run. What was he going to do? Stop? Well, maybe he could have. But, no. He didn't. Instead, he disassociated himself from that foot. He completely rejected the pain. And for some reason I just loved what he said:

"This foot doesn't belong to me any more. It doesn't fit in with who I am, what I'm trying to do, or where I'm going. This is not my foot."

And:

"If I ever noticed that throbbing at the end of my leg, I'd dismiss it as 'not my problem.' I simply wasn't going to deal with it."

OK, maybe not the healthiest response but, hey, it got him through the run. If he hadn't rejected the pain, how would he have run across country? Well, he wouldn't have.

I've used this strategy since reading that it worked for him. I mean, if it can work to get a 57 year old guy from California to New York -- on his own two feet -- it can get me 5 miles.

Let me tell you: It works. That hamstring? I don't know who it belongs to because it certainly isn't mine. Try it next time you're racing. Pain goes away justlikethat.

There were a ton of other tidbits that I took away from the book, some of them traditional tips, others just plain inspiration. I'll leave it to you to find your own tidbits because I do recommend that you go out and read the book. It's a good one.

You can purchase Running on Empty on Amazon.It is currently listed for $17.16 and eligible for free shipping.

The giveaway

I'm happy to be able to offer one lucky reader a copy of Running on Empty! 

To enter to win a copy of the book, leave me a comment. It's that simple.

Additional entries:

As always, you can gain extra entries. Remember, though, you must complete the required entry first! (Leave one comment per entry for the additional ones to count):

• Follow this blog, or let me know that you already do (leave a comment)
• Become a fan of The Happy Runner on Facebook, or let me know that you already are (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from Facebook or Twitter (do as often as you'd like, just leave a comment each time)
• Follow Marshall Ulrich on Facebook (and tell him The Happy Runner sent you! and leave a comment)
• Follow Marshall on Twitter (leave a comment)
• Link to this giveaway from your blog (leave a comment with the url)

This giveaway will run through Wednesday, May 18 at 11:59pm EST and the winner will be announced on Thursday.

Good luck!

~ Felice

Review/giveaway disclosure: I was sent an advanced copy of the book to review. I was not compensated in any way for this review/giveaway and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.