How can you get three free fun, engaging, and thought-provoking novels from Harlequin, the premier sponsor for The Three Tomatoes Summer Garden Party on Wednesday, August 3? You’ve got to be “in it so win it,” so, see you there!

Everybody has a mission in life. Mine is to encourage people to read more, everything from memoir to fantasy, blue novels to white papers, history to mystery. While reading is a solitary pleasure, a meet-up with fellow bookworms and, even better, expert authors who keep us enthralled, ups the satisfaction quotient immeasurably. On Wednesday, August 3 at La Tarte Flambee in midtown Manhattan, Tomatoes will gather to celebrate summer and summer’s most entertaining reads. These three terrific novels from Harlequin, our premier sponsor for this evening of yummy eats, good drinks, and lively company, can be yours when we raffle off a book bag of ten of this season’s best books.

Can’t join us? Buy the books.

Karma Brown is joining us that evening and I can’t wait to congratulate her on how well she tells a roller-coaster of a story about the hopes, frustrations, and sacrifices of motherhood. Kate and Hannah’s faith in their lifelong friendship helps them tackle a challenge that would certainly paralyze me. Get the book.

World War II is having quite the moment in fiction. Pam Jenoff offers a new twist with Adelia Monteforte, a teenager fleeing Fascist Italy who washes up on our shores with nothing more than her aunt and uncle’s name. As soon as she can, she returns to war-torn Europe and accomplishes something that seems damn near impossible. There’s so much more to Addie’s story, including three dashing men vying for her affection. Pam Jenoff will be there, too, on August 3 and I can’t wait to hear how she came to write her young hero’s story. Get the book.

Sultry, sexy, and impossible to put down, this mystery has its roots deep in Kentucky’s antebellum past. You’ll want to consume this with two fingers of your finest whiskey and a willing partner… it’s sure to spark some fireworks! Get the book.

Beth Goehring believes, with apologies to Lorelei Lee, that rather than diamonds books are a girl’s best friend…and a boy’s, a man’s and a woman’s. For more than twenty-five years, through Book-of-the-Month Club and its related clubs, she’s sold popular fiction, mysteries, romances, cookbooks, children’s books, play scripts, behind-the-scenes tales of the movies and theatre, and lifestyle books. She lives with her husband and