Launch Party
Thanks to everyone who joined the celebration! The launch party was hosted by King's Books, and featured mini-makeovers by Che Mel. Check out photos from the event!
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| Bulletproof Mascara Launch Party! |
Reviews
FROM KINGDOM BOOKS 04.05.10 by BETH KANELL, www.kingdombks.com
Can espionage be riddled with humor and still provide an intense and believable plot? Bethany Maines proves that the answer is yes in her new thriller, Bulletproof Mascara. An international cosmetics company named Carrie Mae (say it out loud) is dedicated to the women it serves: "Our sales consultants provide needed income for their families and affordable, quality cosmetics for women everywhere." That's what the indomitable Mrs. Merrivel asserts as Nicole -- Nikki -- Lanier begins to question just what the deeper side of the corporation, the Carrie Mae Foundation, is up to. If she'd been a bit more introspective, Nikki might have noticed that her own background in martial arts and multiple languages wasn't exactly the typical setup for handing out beauty samples. Carrie Mae's recruits have serious work to do, upholding the rights and safety of women around the globe. That's why Nikki is getting firearms training, as well as a set of highly improbably devices that can be hidden in lipstick tubes, powder compacts, and other feminine accoutrements.
Nikki's first mission turns tough on day one, as her partner Val, whose capabilities range from scaling walls to picking the perfect pair of shoes, keeps abandoning Nikki during their rescue operation in Thailand. If it weren't for having to prove her mother wrong, Nikki might cut and run. At the same time, there's a possible CIA agent (male) chasing either Nikki or the same criminals she's confronting. There's no chance for "kiss and tell" because everything from elephants to international trafficking demands attention. Although I rolled with laughter every chapter or two, the situations never slipped away from "this could really happen!" Maines provides a merry and snugly plotted rejoinder to John Burdett's Thailand crime fiction, while creating in Nikki a modern-day, well-groomed, James-Bond-in-lipstick. And Atria chose well in offering this fun read as a chunky trade paperback.
Best news yet: There's already a sequel in the works.
FROM SHEKNOWS ENTERTAINMENT 03.10.10 by CRYSTAL PATRIARCHE
http://www.sheknows.com/articles/814113/bulletproof-mascara-1
You definitely want to get in on this high-gloss, action-packed ride that follows Nikki from unemployment to infiltrating the secret ranks of Carrie Mae's international espionage organization for women.
Soon she is in Thailand investigating the disappearance of a human rights activist, dealing with a wildly dangerous and unstable partner, and trying to juggle her new romance with a might-or-might-not-be-CIA hunk.
Booklist says, it’s "a madcap romantic adventure that is a humorous as it is action-packed."
SheKnows Chick Lit says it's just plain fantastic and fun.
And just call Bethany Maines the new 007 of Chick Lit. Can't wait for the next book in the series.
FROM AOL SHOPPING 03.02.10 by NADINE JOLIE
http://shopping.aol.com/articles/2010/03/02/bulletproof-mascara-the-latest-in-beauty-reading/
Fellow beauty junkies, do I have a book for you! Released today, Bulletproof Mascara by Bethany Maines, $10.12, is the tale of Nikki Lanier, a linguist who joins a top-secret group of woman spies posing as door-to-door makeup salespeople. The company name? Carrie Mae. (Hmm...sounds awfully like Mary Kay...) Nikki's secret training includes learning her way around spy tools disguised as makeup: acid nail polish, pepper spray perfume, grenade lipsticks and exploding foundation. Unsurprisingly, Nikki's background in languages, combined with her dual Canadian-American citizenship and martial-arts training, makes her a natural spy, and she combines forces with veteran spy Valerie Robinson to rescue an abductee who's been protesting the Asian sex trade.
I won't give away the book: suffice it to say, it's a breezy page-turner, full of action and fun. While it's hardly Dostoevsky, Bulletproof Mascara is light and amusing, perfect for a lazy weekend or long plane flight. (One review aptly described it as what happens when Avon Ladies meet Charlie's Angels.) Beauty addicts, you'll enjoy!
FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 01.18.10
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6715008.html?industryid=47159
Bulletproof Mascara Bethany Maines. Atria, $15 paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9277-1
In Maines's delicious spy spoof debut, wide-eyed linguist Nikki Lanier joins the “confidential side” of Carrie Mae, a cosmetics giant like Mary Kay or Avon, whose charity foundation uses covert means to help women. Nikki doesn't bat an eyelash as she undergoes rigorous training at the company's academy in Santa Clarita, Calif., where female spies are stylishly equipped with gizmos like “pepper spray perfume, flash grenade lipsticks, mini-scanner compacts, knockout breath mints, acid nail polish, plastic explosive foundation, and stiletto stilettos.” With Valerie Robinson, a jaded pro, Nikki embarks on her first mission, to rescue Lawan Chinnawat, “one of the loudest voices protesting the sex trade that flourishes throughout Asia,” who's been abducted. The plot takes a few surprise twists before reaching the exciting climax. Maines deftly combines humor with action in this fashion-forward thriller, which will remind many of such TV shows as Charlie's Angels, Alias, and Heroes.
FROM BOOKLIST 01.1.10 by Aleksandra Walker
Bulletproof Mascara.
With a linguistics degree and no other prospects, Nikki Lanier takes a job with the philanthropic arm of Carrie Mae, a cosmetics company, to get out of her mother’s house. She doesn’t expect the training to involve target practice, intelligence techniques, and identifying explosives disguised as make-up. The Carrie Mae Foundation is actually a network of secret operatives charged with protecting women around the world. Nikki passes her training with flying colors. Her boss, the enigmatic Mrs. M, then pairs Nikki with flinty agent Valerie Robinson and sends them to Thailand to find the missing director of a women’s clinic. Mix in double agents, human trafficking, and repeated run-ins with a charismatic stranger who’s hiding something, and Maines turns in a tale full of surprises. This debut novelist may lack polish, but she makes up for it with a clever premise in this madcap romantic adventure that is as humorous as it is action packed.
Author Bethany Maines
Bethany Maines is a native of Tacoma WA, who is actually very much like her fictional heroine Nikki Lanier: she travels to exotic lands, has the ability to kick some serious butt with her third degree black belt in karate, and has a day job to cover for her outside-of-work activities. And while her travels may not necessarily include fighting super agents of evil so much as eating spicy foods and hiking to the tops of mountains (okay, really big hills), her black belt skills are mainly employed in teaching karate to a classroom full of kids (although there was that one time in Paris...), and her day job is something she actually enjoys (graphic design is fun!), she's pretty much a secret agent in her own right. "Bulletproof Mascara" is Bethany's first novel, and she is hard at work on the sequel.