Category: book review

Live Self-Sufficiently Book Spotlight

iRead Book Tours

Learn how to live your life self-sufficiently with this new twelve step book!

Live Self-SufficientlyAbout Live Self-Sufficiently

This is a twelve-step guide to living self-sufficiently with lessons on personal growth, self love, health and wellness, financial stability and healthy relationships.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Alibris.

About the Author

Live Self Sufficiently

Tisha Marie Payton is a certified life and relationship coach. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma. Her education is in human relations with an emphasis in art therapy. For over twelve years Ms. Payton provided service to her community as a Girl Scout, has competed in pageants, fitness and swimsuit modeling, and landed the cover of Playboy Magazine. Throughout her collegiate and modeling career, she found that many people live dependent upon others and aren’t truly living happily. She began a nonprofit organization called Building ME in Texas to build enlightened minds in youth and provide pertinent life skills to stop the cycle of dependency. This is a twelve-step guide to personal growth, self-love, health and wellness, financial stability, and healthy relationships.

You can connect with her on her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is a spotlight tour post, I received no compensation for this post. I loved the book’s description and wanted to share it with you my readers!

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Celebrate Dad With A Meaningful Book Collection from Raincoast Books

Raincoast Books

Our Dad’s have been there every step of the way from pregnancy through childhood. From late night food deliveries to Mom when she had crazy cravings to driving colicky infants around the block to soothe them. Dads build our confidence up and love us in a way that only they can.

On Father’s Day we get to show them just how special they are (even if we should be celebrating this every day of the year!) but this one day allows us to push aside our crazy lives and focus on the special bond between Dad and child. Raincoast Books has selected their top books that focuses on this special relationship and helps celebrate Dads. Here they are:

Celebrate Dad with This Meaningful Book Collection from Raincoast Books

Tell Me A Tattoo Story

A bestselling author-illustrator duo join forces to create a modern father-son love story in Tell Me A Tattoo Story. The father tells his little son the story behind each of his tattoos, and together they go on a beautiful journey through family history. There’s a tattoo from a favorite book his mother used to read him, one from something his father used to tell him, and one from the longest trip he ever took. And there is a little heart with numbers inside-which might be the best tattoo of them all. Tender pictures by New York Times bestselling illustrator Eliza Wheeler complement this lovely ode to all that’s indelible-ink and love.

When I saw this book, I knew this one was for us. My husband has several tattoos that our boys are just amazed with. Tattoos tell a deeper meaning for the person who carries them, they tell of love, achievement, family and loss. We love talking about tattoos and tracing our husband’s ones on his arms and back. He has one that represents his move to Canada and another for our eldest son. He has the design ready for our youngest one – he just needs to figure out where! I loved the simplicity, honesty and love that was shown in this book. It was a great read for all four of us to sit down and read together, while sparking a conversation about my husband’s tattoos. I love how this book takes into consideration the new norm by talking about tattoos – tattoos aren’t a bad thing or mean a bad person. More and more people have them now and they represent so much meaning behind them. It was a truly special book.

Celebrate Dad with This Meaningful Book Collection from Raincoast Books

Monster & Son

In Monster & Son, romp along with parent and child yetis, werewolves, giant lizards, and more as they stir up some monster-sized fun! Readers big and small, young and old, wild and tame, will roar with laughter and take this book by the horns, teeth, and fur… discovering that monsters and humans aren’t so different-especially in the ways they love each other.

A truly lovely book about the relationship between son and Father. It suited my boys perfectly! It was darkly coloured, with scary monsters (with smiling faces), a great rhythm which made reading aloud so much easier and the perfect story line. We followed Father and son as they played games, joked and bonded until Dad tucked little one into bed. It showcases the love between Father and son perfectly regardless of being human or monster! This will make the perfect bed time story.

Celebrate Dad with This Meaningful Book Collection from Raincoast Books

Commando Dad New Recruits

This essential guide to pregnancy offers everything the expecting father needs to know in the run-up to the birth, or deployment day.” Packaged like an army training manual and written in guy-friendly, no-nonsense military speak, it presents month-by-month overviews of the baby’s development, the lowdown on pregnancy symptoms, tips for supporting the mom-to-be, a guide to prenatal care, and what to expect during labor and beyond. With expert advice, easy-to-follow information, and commentary from other first-time fathers, it’s the go-to reference for the dad-to-be who wants to prepare himself-mentally, physically, and emotionally-for the arrival of his new recruit.”

Celebrate Dad with This Meaningful Book Collection from Raincoast Books

Letters to My Dad

This book of twelve letters (ten prompted, two blank) makes it easy for children of many ages-from tween to adult-to show Dad how much they care. Once filled out, sealed, and postdated, the letters become handwritten time capsules to give to Dad for Father’s Day, holidays, or milestone birthdays. When he breaks open the seals in the future, he will find a priceless keepsake.

This is a beautiful series of books that will honestly be treasured forever. My boys filled out the Letters to My Mom and it made my heart melt!

Celebrate Dad with This Meaningful Book Collection from Raincoast Books

Gator Dad

From seemingly mundane tasks such as grocery shopping to more active pursuits like a romp at the park and fort-building, a loving and playful father alligator shows his gator kids that the simplest pleasures done together can make for an incredibly fun day in Gator Dad.

Presented by New York Times bestselling author Brian Lies ( Bats at the Beach ), this heartwarming story demonstrates a series of very special ways children can connect with their fathers and should appeal to parents and little readers everywhere.

Celebrate Father's with This Book Giveaway from Raincoast Books

A Perfect Father’s Day

An engaging family portrait and a winning tribute to ‘Dad.'” – School Library Journal

Four-year-old Susie gives her dad her idea of the perfect Father’s Day: A fast food restaurant for lunch, feeding birds at the park, a ride on the carousel, the swings . . . they even top their day off with balloons! Eve Bunting’s tongue-in-cheek story is sure to resonate with the loving, exhausted parents of charming preschoolers. Susan Meddaugh contributes ample subtle humor to the reading experience in the details of her illustrations. This sweet treat of a book, in a new paper-over-board gift edition with foil cover accents, is the perfect story for dads and kids to share on a perfect Father’s Day.

Raincoast Books now wants you to win four of your choice of the above titles to give to the special Dad in your life. Enter now via the Rafflecopter form below – good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received Monster & Son and Tell Me A Tattoo Story in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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My Father’s House

Litfuse Book Tour

In My Father’s House, Growing up, life is idyllic for Lily Rose Cates due to one constant – her father’s love.

My Father's House

About My Father’s House

But in her sixteenth summer, all that changes without warning. There begins Lily’s struggle to find herself and the life she’s lost. Marriage promises fulfillment, but her happily-ever-after barely survives the honeymoon. Her husband’s sophisticated façade hides a brooding man with even darker secrets.

When all illusions shatter, Lily must make hard choices, abandon her husband or risk losing much more than her marriage. She flees their home in Detroit and sets out on a fearful journey to a house in Georgia that her husband knows nothing about. This is one woman’s compelling tale of love and survival as she finds her way back home to who she’s meant to be in her father’s house.

My Thoughts

A powerful story of love, hurt, forgiveness and survival. When Lily lost her Father, she lost so much more. She was constantly on the search of that replacement love. She thinks she has found this in her husband, a man she sees as perfect. But under this façade is more hiding, which she quickly learns. The man she thought was perfect and who would love her forever is as far from this as possible. It doesn’t take her long to realize she needs to leave and with some help from an old family friend, she escapes her terrifying present life to relocate to the house she had inherited from her Father.

Once she is away from her harmful marriage, Lily must take the steps to healing her heart from her past and her marriage in order to move forward. With the help of some heart warming characters, Lily begins the slow process of healing her heart and her mind. She reminds us all that there is always hope, even when we are hurting the most we can still find hope.

I loved every moment of this suspenseful and heart warming novel. You will fall in love with her writing, her characters and the hope that is sprung from this novel. An excellent read from start to finish!

You can find more reviews on the Litfuse blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Rose Chandler Johnson is the author of the award winning devotional God, Me, and Sweet Iced Tea: Experiencing God in the Midst of Everyday Moments. My Father’s House is her first novel. She happily makes her home near Augusta, Georgia.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Make Parenting Simple Again with These Top Picks from Raincoast Books

Raincoast Books

When we first find out we are pregnant, we know that we just want to succeed in parenting and raise the healthiest and happiest child. We want to get all the safety, health and nursery right. We want to stimulate our babies mind while encouraging growth. So we probably read many parenting books, websites and blogs all in the hopes of learning how to succeed in parenting.

While these books are great (and honestly you really should read them), they miss out on some important aspects of parenting: letting your child play, imagine, create and how to just sit back and have fun. Too often we want to break up play we feel is dangerous (I know I has this habit!) even when it was something we did as a child ourselves. Sometimes we may be holding our child back by not allowing them that same freedom we had as children. These incredibly helpful parenting titles explain why.

Make Parenting Simple Again with Raincoast Books

Balanced and Barefoot

In this important book, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of TimberNook
shows how outdoor play and unstructured freedom of movement are vital for children’s
cognitive development and growth, and offers tons of fun, engaging ways to help ensure
that kids grow into healthy, balanced, and resilient adults.

Today’s kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need rough and tumble” outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses?

Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program-that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis-author Angela Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment.

I fell in love with this book, literally could not put it down as the facts and strategies were fascinating. She looks at important statistics like how our children are weaker physically than children in the 80s and more to help us figure out where we need to change our parenting style. While some of the statistics are shocking, I am sure once you read them you will be able to see the truth in them. You may recognize other children or even your own (the child that does not like to touch grass or certain textured food). She uses examples of her own children, her own parenting experiences and practice experiences to guide us. She speaks in an open way that you feel as though it is a conversation with her and she truly gets your struggles. I found myself nodding a lot at times and I am sure my husband and kids thought I was a tad bit strange!

She even had me examining my own parenting and stopping me from interrupting disputes, organizing play for my kids and stopping play that I deemed unsafe (not to the extreme level but rock jumping and tree climbing should be okay for kids). I looked at my kids and for the first time I understood why they were happiest outside and why they get angry and have outbursts after too much screen time. It just clicked. Since then, we have spent more time outside on the field, in the front yard and just letting them choose what they want to do. I have held myself back more instead of trying to organize activities and instead encourage them to use their own minds to create games.

This is an excellent book for parents to be, parents of toddlers and young children who may be struggling. She gives helpful ideas, explanations that you can truly understand and real world advice.

Make Parenting Simple Again with Raincoast Books

Let’s Color Together

Scribble your way to fun with your kids through face-to-face colouring in Let’s Color Together!

Colouring books are all the rage with everyone from preschoolers to grandparents, so why not share the joy of coloring with those you love the most? Featuring beautiful spreads specifically designed for two people to color at once and enjoy at once, Let’s Color Together is the perfect opportunity to sit down, connect, and share some fun with your kids.

Who doesn’t love a good colouring book? It’s even more fun when you get to enjoy it with your child (or in our case they didn’t even wait for me and started colouring before I could join them!). The designs ranged in difficultly and size of the lines/spacing so that this book could be appreciated by a wide age range of children and adults. It is the perfect unwinding tool from a long day at work and at school and an even better way of spending some quiet time with your child.

Make Parenting Simple Again with Raincoast Books

Mothers of the Village

So many mothers feel like something is out of joint, something is missing – and maybe the truth is that we’re all just missing each other.

C. J. Schneider found herself in the middle of a perfect storm after giving birth to her third child and moving to a new neighborhood. Conditions for misery and postpartum depression were ideal: she was isolated, lonely, and exhausted with three young children at home. As she started talking with other mothers, she realized that she was not alone in her experience of feeling alone.

In her unique voice, Schneider intelligently and compassionately offers practical advice on how to create the essential community that mothers need. Given the many examples of communal mothering from the past and around the world, as well as modern examples of communities in which mothers are thriving, the research is clear: since the beginning of womankind, mothering has been a communal effort.

Mothers of the Village affirms that as mothers connect with each other and learn to work with each other, despite the challenges, they may find a piece of themselves that they have felt missing all along.

Make Parenting Simple Again with Raincoast Books

Why Can’t We Just Play?

Facing summer with her two boys, ages ten and seven, Pam Lobley was sifting through sign ups for swim team, rec camp, night camp, scout camp, and enrichment classes. Overwhelmed at the choices, she asked her sons what they wanted to do during summer: Soccer? Zoo School? Little Prodigy’s Art Club?”

“Why can’t we just play?” they asked.

A summer with no scheduled activities at all . . . The thought was tempting, but was it possible? It would be like something out of the 1950s. Could they really have a summer like that?

Juggling the expectations of her husband (“Are you going to wear garters?”), her son, Sam (“I’m bored!”), and her son, Jack (“Can I just stay in my pajamas?”), Pam sets out to give her kids an old-fashioned summer. During the shapeless days, she studies up on the myths and realities of the 1950s. With her trademark wit and candor, she reveals what we can learn from those long-ago families, why raising kids has changed so drastically, and most importantly, how to stop time once in a while and just play in Why Can’t We Just Play.

Parenting your child shouldn’t be a rigid schedule of to-do lists, sports events and music. Sometimes we all just need to sit back, be in the mood and play. Now you can enter to win a copy of Let’s Color Together and one of the above mentioned titles. Enter via the rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received Let’s Color Together and Barefoot and Balanced in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Anchor in the Storm Book Review

Litfuse Book Tour

In Anchor in the Storm, we have one plucky female pharmacist + one high-society naval officer = romance-and danger.

Anchor in the Storm

About Anchor in the Storm

For plucky Lillian Avery, America’s entry into World War II means a chance to prove herself as a pharmacist in Boston. The challenges of her new job energize her. But society boy Ensign Archer Vandenberg’s attentions only annoy—even if he is her brother’s best friend.

During the darkest days of the war, Arch’s destroyer hunts German U-boats in vain as the submarines sink dozens of merchant ships along the East Coast. Still shaken by battles at sea, Arch notices his men also struggle with their nerves—and with drowsiness. Could there be a link to the large prescriptions for sedatives Lillian has filled? The two work together to answer that question, but can Arch ever earn Lillian’s trust and affection?

My Thoughts

I LOVE this novel! It picks up with some of our favourite characters from Through Waters Deep (the Avery family) but this time the focus is on Lillian. Lillian is a strong, independent young woman whose only short coming (viewed by others this way but never by her) is an injury to her leg. I loved her confidence, her hope and her drive. She never gives up throughout the novel even though society is against her moving into a typical role filled by males.

She moves to Boston and there she begins to form a friendship with her brother’s best friend, Arch. While this seems to be more of a friendship it is very difficult for both of them to admit it. Arch has been hurt in the past with women who only want his money and Lillian who was mentally and physically abused by a past boyfriend because of her leg. Both have trust issues and have to learn to trust each other and open their hearts to each other.

In between this is a huge drug scandal that rocks the army in Boston, that Lillian and Arch are responsible for discovering!

This was one exciting novel full of hope, forgiveness, understanding and mystery. I loved every moment of reading this novel.

You can find more reviews on the Litfuse Blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Sarah Sundin is the author of Through Waters Deep, as well as Wings of the Nightingale and the Wings of Glory series. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist’s mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force. Sarah lives in California.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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