Fast Freddy by Lee Ann Mancini

This is a fantastic children’s picture/story book. The illustrations are wonderful. This book tells a nice story about a character that is a little different from the other characters. Can they learn to be friends? I received this book from bookfun.org for a fair and honest opinion.Multiple Award-Winning book series helps to build a strong , foundational relationship with Jesus, while teaching love, and compassion for others! Fast Freddyis one of the sea kids that live in the coralhood. Fast Freddy overcomes the ridicule of being different (half shark, half octopus) from the other kids in his new school. Once they find out he can swim fast like a shark, they ask him to join the swim team. They realize he is a great kid and are happy that he helps them win the championship for the first time. He comes from behind overcoming Marcus who is a formidable threat on team Barracudas. His octopus arms wave in victory as he crosses the finish line! Freddy receives the MVP award, but says a prayer of thanks to Jesus for being different and having new friends. Lee Ann Mancini and Dan Sharp have created an underwater world that explodes with color, drawing the children into the captivating story. Readers Favorite, FAPA, IBPA and Mom’s Choice award.” 

Heart of a Cowboy by Susan Page Davis, Marilee Ferrell, YVonne Lehman and Vickie McDonough

This is a book with 4 novellas. There is Hearts in Pursuit by Susan Page Davis, Hearts Reunited by Marilee Ferrell, Have Dress, Will Marry by YVonne Lehman and The Hand-Me-Down-Husband. Each of these novellas takes place during the 1880’s out west. These are all well written and fun books. These are wonderful romances. I received an ebook copy of these from Merrilee Ferrell for a fair and honest opinion. 

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

I really enjoyed reading this story. I was surprised at who was who in this story. I loved the characters. I cried a lot in this story. It is always hard when there is a death of a child in any story. I received an ebook copy of this book from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion.The next blockbuster thriller for those who loved”The Girl on the Train”and “Gone Girl..”. a finely crafted novel with a killer twist. (Paula Hawkins, #1 “New York Times” bestselling author of “The Girl on the Train”)”” “On a rainy afternoon, a mother’s life is shattered as her son slips from her grip and runs into the street . . . ” “I Let You Go” follows Jenna Gray as she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the remote Welsh coast, trying to escape the memory of the car accident that plays again and again in her mind and desperate to heal from the loss of her child and the rest of her painful past. At the same time, the novel tracks the pair of Bristol police investigators trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run. As they chase down one hopeless lead after another, they find themselves as drawn to each other as they are to the frustrating, twist-filled case before them. Elizabeth Haynes, author of “Into the Darkest Corner,” says, I read” I Let You Go” in two sittings; it made me cry (at least twice), made me gasp out loud (once), and above all made me wish I’d written it . . . a stellar achievement. *Peter James, author of “Want You Dead” “From the Hardcover edition.””

The Obsession by Nora Roberts

This was fantastic. It has been one of my favorite Nora Roberts stories. How does one continue on with your life after you discover something bad about one of your family. Naomi Bowes must learn to deal with just this dilemma. I look forward to many more Nora Roberts books. I received an ebook copy of this from First to Read for a fair and honest opinion.
“She stood in the deep, dark woods, breath shallow and cold prickling over her skin despite the hot, heavy air. She took a step back, then two, as the urge to run fell over her.” 

 

Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous. No matter how close she gets to happiness, she can’t outrun the sins of Thomas David Bowes.

 

Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, a rambling old house in need of repair, thousands of miles away from everything she’s ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the kindly residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up—especially the determined Xander Keaton. 

 

Naomi can feel her defenses failing, and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she’s always secretly craved. But the sins of her father can become an obsession, and, as she’s learned time and again, her past is never more than a nightmare away.

White by Denise Weimer plus a giveaway

I did not want this book to end. I am so looking forward to reading the second book in the Restoration Trilogy. This book goes from the past to the present. Jennifer is hired by Michael and his dad ,James, to help restore three buildings. During the first part of the renovations we get a glimpse into Michaels ancestors. He has some interesting revolations. I received this book from CelebrationLit for a fair and honest opinion.
Purchase your copy in paperback here or in ebook here
Guest Post from Denise Weimer
IMG_2183When I speak to book clubs or people ask me why I started writing historical fiction, I tell them that as I grew up, my parents took me to numerous historical sites. I wondered who lived in an old house or town and what their lives were like. What treasures, what secrets, might I find if I could dig down to the bones of an old mansion? My active imagination kicked in, and I started scribbling stories in spiral bound notebooks. I knew from age eleven I wanted to be a writer, though for a time I considered historical preservation as a career. I found the perfect marriage of those desires in The Restoration Trilogy, my new series with Canterbury House Publishing.
IMG_0802The restoration my parents did on their own historic house and apothecary shop inspired White, Widow and Witch. While looking for a residence in a country community, Mom and Dad purchased a property they later learned belonged to a line of regionally famous doctors tracing back to Revolutionary War days. Watching them piece together stories from the past with the help of local historians nudged me to depart from the historical settings of my past novels (Redeeming Grace and The Georgia Gold Series) in favor of modern romantic suspense. Readers follow Jennifer Rushmore, a recent historic preservation graduate, and Michael Johnson, a brooding bachelor who has inherited property from ancestors he knows little about, as they restore a doctor’s house, apothecary shop and log cabin. During the restoration of each, they uncover a story from a different century (1920, 1870 and 1790) containing a lesson of “heart healing” they need to apply in the present.
Most of us have been through hardships in our lives that God would use to refine our characters or expose and heal pain from our pasts. Sometimes we’re tempted to just slap another coat of paint over a crack or build a cheap façade over a weakness. God knows that full restoration takes effort, time and expense, so He never goes to work without our permission. However, He is the only one who can bring us to wholeness.
Jennifer accepts the assignment in the eclectic community of Hermon while waiting for her dream job in Savannah, never imagining God might have other plans. Country neighbors determined to become friends, a handsome but secretive employer with conflicting ideas about how to conduct the restoration, and strange accidents hinting that someone doesn’t want them working on the property strip away Jennifer’s personal defenses. She comes to learn that when a person is open to the work of the Master Renovator, one can find blessings in the unlikeliest of places.
About the Book
COVER-WHITE_RGB72webWhen Jennifer Rushmore accepts a brooding bachelor’s job offer to act as coordinator for the restoration of his family’s historic doctor’s house (White), apothecary (Widow) and log cabin (Witch) in a rural Georgia community, little does she know it’s her own heart that will undergo the greatest renovation. Three stories. Three centuries. Three lessons on the healing of the heart. And one buried mystery that threatens their redemption.
White: As historic preservationist Jennifer and brooding bachelor Michael restore his ancestors’ historic doctor’s residence in a rural Georgia community, they uncover the 1920s-era prejudice and secrets that caused Michael’s branch to fall off the family tree. Recent graduate Jennifer is determined to fulfill her first professional position with integrity even if her employer lacks a proper appreciation of history. Far more challenging—and sinister—than the social landscape of Hermon are the strange accidents hinting that someone doesn’t want them on the Dunham property. Yet Michael’s and Jennifer’s own pasts pose the biggest obstacles to laying a fresh foundation of family and community.
About the Author
head shotIn addition to The Restoration Trilogy, native Georgian Denise Weimer is the author of numerous magazine articles about her home state, romantic novella Redeeming Grace, The Georgia Gold Series (Sautee Shadows, The Gray Divide, The Crimson Bloom, and Bright as Gold). Bright as Gold won the 2015 John Esten Cooke Award for authentic Southern literature. She holds a journalism degree with a minor in history from Asbury University, is a wife and swim mom of two daughters, and always pauses for coffee, chocolate and old houses.
Giveway
In honor of the White Celebration Tour, Denise is giving away a print copy of WHITE: Book One of The Restoration Trilogy, a $15 Starbucks card to representing the coffee-loving modern heroine, and a vintage hat to represent the historical heroine. Click to enter:
https://promosimple.com/ps/96a4
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Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James

Is there a ghost or is Jo going crazy like her mother? Jo has lost her husband in the war(presumed dead). She takes a job as her aunts paid companion traveling. This ain’t was her aunt from her husbands side. Her aunt then decides she is done traveling and goes home to Wycherley Elm House. Is this place haunted or is Jo going crazy like her mother. There are many twists and turns, angry people and weird happenings. This is a great story. I received N ebook copy of this from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion.For fans of historical fiction and gothic romance, an atmospheric ghost story from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy ClareEngland, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared after being shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to his wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins … and all is not well at Wych Elm House. Dottie’s husband is distant, and her son was grievously injured in the war. Footsteps follow Jo down empty halls, and items in her bedroom are eerily rearranged. More unsettling, she learns things about the family that Alex never told her: Dottie had an unstable daughter who killed herself as well as a local man. The neighbors say the family is cursed. Just as Jo begins to question the husband she once knew, a stranger returns to Wych Elm House, claiming to be Alex.

The Other Side of Silence by Philip Kerr

I wish I had read some of the Bernie Gunther novels before this one. I had a little trouble following some of the story at first. There was a great story here though. There were a lot of twists and turns to this story. I give it 4 stars. By the middle of this book I was really enjoying what was happening because you start to get bits about Bernies previous life. I will continue to read any more books about Bernie Gunther and try to read some of his older ones to learn more about Bernie. I received this ebook copy from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion.
Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh and read Law at  university. He stayed on to read Law and Philosophy as a postgraduate, most of this German, which was when he first became interested in German twentieth century history. He worked first as a copywriter at a number of advertising agencies, including Saatchi & Saatchi, but spent most of his time researching an idea he’d had for a novel about a Berlin-based policeman. And following several trips to Germany – and a great deal of walking around mean streets of Berlin – his first novel, March Violets, was published in 1989 and introduced the world to the iconic tough-talking detective Bernie Gunther. Since then he has written and published ten universally lauded Bernie Gunther novels, and is currently working on his eleventh. He has won both the RBA International Prize for Crime Writing, and the CWA Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award.
Once I’d been a good detective in Kripo, but that was a while ago, before the criminals wore smart gray uniforms and nearly everyone locked up was innocent.” Being a Berlin cop in 1942 was a little like putting down mousetraps in a cage full of tigers.
The war is over. Bernie Gunther, our sardonic former Berlin homicide detective and unwilling SS officer, is now living on the French Riviera. It is 1956 and Bernie is the go-to guy at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, the man you turn to for touring tips or if you need a fourth for bridge. As it happens, a local writer needs just that, someone to fill the fourth seat in a regular game that is the usual evening diversion at the Villa Mauresque. Not just any writer. Perhaps the richest and most famous living writer in the world: W. Somerset Maugham. And it turns out it is not just a bridge partner that he needs; it’s some professional advice. Maugham is being blackmailed—perhaps because of his unorthodox lifestyle. Or perhaps because of something in his past, because once upon a time, Maugham worked for the British secret service, and the people now blackmailing him are spies.
As Gunther fans know, all roads lead back to the viper’s nest that was Hitler’s Third Reich and to the killing fields that spread like a disease across Europe. Even in 1956, peace has not come to the continent: now the Soviets have the H-bomb and spies from every major power feel free to make all of Europe their personal playground.

Busy, Busy by Eileen Spinelli

This is a wonderful board book for moms to read to their children. Children will love the colorful pictures. I love the ending. Hopefully everyone remembers that this is the most important part. I received this book from Worthy Publishing for a fair and honest opinion.

Eileen Spinelli is a poet and picture book author with a talent for lovable stories that tug at the heart. She is the author of more than forty books for children, including Heat Wave, When You Are Happy, I Know It’s Autumn, Thanksgiving at the Tappletons’, Sophie’s Masterpiece, and Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. Ms. Spinelli lives in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

  Sometimes, when life gets hectic and schedules get crowded, children may feel a little lost in the shuffle. In this new board book, the animals are all quite occupied. Beaver is busy; squirrel is busy; frog is busy. Mole is digging, bear is fishing, and cat is pouncing. And like many parents, Mama is busy too. But she’s not too busy for a hug! Children will love the busy animals and the warm conclusion. This lighthearted, lyrical book will gently reassure children that, in spite of how busy their families are, there is always time to share love. Ages 2-5.

The Reluctant Duchess by Roseanna M. White plus giveaway

This was wonderful. It is the second book in the Ladies of the Manor series. You probably should read The Lost Heiress first to really get every thing out of the second book. I fell in love with all the characters. Rowena and Brice connect in the wrong way but learn to finally listen to each other and become happy. There are many battles to wage but they make it through. Great suspense and love story. I received this book from Celebratelit for a fair and honest opinion.  Literary Fiction

A Riveting Edwardian Series Set among Britain’s High Society Lady Rowena Kinnaird may be the heiress to a Highland earldom, but she has never felt good enough–not for her father, not for the man she thought she’d marry, not for God. But after a shocking attack, she’s willing to be forever an outcast if it means escaping Loch Morar. Brice Myerston, the Duke of Nottingham, has found himself in possession of a rare treasure his enemies are prepared to kill for. While Brice has never been one to shy away from manor-born ladies, the last thing he needs is the distraction of Lady Rowena, who finds herself in a desperate situation. But when Rowena’s father tries to trap Brice into marrying his daughter, Brice makes a surprising decision. Rowena wanted to escape the Highlands, but she’s reluctant to marry a notorious flirt. And when she learns that Brice is mixed up in questionable business with a stolen treasure, she fears she’s about to end up directly in the path of everything she was trying to avoid.

Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of nine novels, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. Roseanna lives with her family in West Virginia. Learn more at http://www.roseannamwhite.com.

Here is how to get to giveaway:  http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e146afbf20/?

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The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White

This is the first book in the Ladies of the Manor series. It is a great beginning to the series. I fell in love with Brook and Justin right from the beginning. Brook finds out that the woman who raised her was not her mother and Justin helps her to find her real father. She goes there to live and get to know her new family. There had been pretenders before her so she had a rough time at first. There is mystery and romance throughout this book. I really look forward to reading the second in the series. I received this book from Bookfun.org for a fair and honest opinion. 

 

Roseanna White Debuts Sparkling British Historical Romance Brook Eden has never known where she truly belongs. Though raised in the palace of Monaco, she’s British by birth and was brought to the Grimaldis under suspicious circumstances as a babe. When Brook’s friend Justin uncovers the fact that Brook is likely a missing heiress from Yorkshire, Brook leaves the sun of the Mediterranean to travel to the moors of the North Sea to the estate of her supposed family. The mystery of her mother’s death haunts her, and though her father is quick to accept her, the rest of the family and the servants of Whitby Park are not. Only when Brook’s life is threatened do they draw close–but their loyalty may come too late to save Brook from the same threat that led to tragedy for her mother. As heir to a dukedom, Justin is no stranger to balancing responsibilities. When the matters of his estate force him far from Brook, the distance between them reveals that what began as friendship has grown into something much more. But how can their very different loyalties and responsibilities ever come together? And then, for a second time, the heiress of Whitby Park is stolen away because of the very rare treasure in her possession–and this time only the servants of Whitby can save her.