July 25, 2017
My Little Pony Equestria Girls Magical Movie Night DVD Giveaway
Growing up, I loved My Little Pony – I had what felt like hundreds of the ponies to play with and my Mom has kept every single one to this date. While My Little Pony has gone through a few changes, they are still fabulous and full of adventure and magic. The Equestria Girls are back in an all new DVD, Magical Movie Night, set to release August 8th, 2017.
About My Little Pony Equestria Girls Magical Movie Night
There’s a reason these seven girls look familiar, as they step through a magical mirror, they transport from the world of My Little Pony, transforming into teenage girls at Canterlot High. Full-time students and part-time magical pony-girls, the Equestria Girls are always ready to save the day with the Magic of Friendship!
The new DVD features three mystical adventures (Dance Magic, Movie Magic and Mirror Magic) and a bonus sing along.
Dance Magic
With the Camp Everfree fundraising deadline looming, the Equestria Girls realize they need a new plan to raise more money. Rarity finds out about a music video competition, with a huge cash prize, and she’s eager to convince her friends at Canterlot High to enter the contest. However, the girls soon learn that Crystal Prep Academy is also interested in participating in the contest. The students at CPA have many more resources and are better dancers! The girls learn that sometimes coming together instead of competing is the best plan of all!
Movie Magic
The Equestria Girls have been specially invited by A.K. Yearling to go on the set of the upcoming Daring Do movie and they are overjoyed. For super-fan Rainbow Dash, watching behind the scenes as her favorite heroine comes to life is a dream come true. However, when a rare and important prop from the set goes missing, putting the movie on hold, Rainbow Dash’s dream becomes a nightmare. The Equestria Girls take it upon themselves to track down the missing prop and end up trotting into a real-life Daring Do adventure!
Mirror Magic
As the pages in her journal run out, there’s only one thing for Sunset Shimmer to do: return to Equestria as a pony to get a new journal! There, she meets new pony Starlight Glimmer and agrees to bring her back through the mirror portal to experience life as a human girl at Canterlot High. However, while Sunset Shimmer is away, a revenge‐seeking Juniper Montage finds a beautiful hand mirror enchanted with Equestrian magic. Not only can it provide a window into another land, but if you push the right button, It can also make things disappear into limbo, trapped between the two realms! Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer return to find the Mane 6 missing and Juniper Montage acting extremely suspicious. Will Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer save the girls, or are the Mane 6 lost in limbo for good?
You can now pre-order a copy of the DVD on Amazon and Shout! Kids Factory.
Do you want to win a copy of this awesome all new Equestria Girls hit?
The Giveaway
My American and Canadian readers can now enter to win their own copy from Shout! Kids. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below – good luck!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this DVD in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
July 25, 2017
Aaru Book Review
“…Death and the stillness of death are the only things certain and common to all in this future…” -Friedrich Nietzsche
About Aaru
Rose is dying. Her body is wasted and skeletal. She is too sick and weak to move. Every day is an agony and her only hope is that death will find her swiftly before the pain grows too great to bear. She is sixteen years old. Rose has made peace with her fate, but her younger sister, Koren, certainly has not. Though all hope appears lost Koren convinces Rose to make one final attempt at saving her life after a mysterious man in a white lab coat approaches their family about an unorthodox and experimental procedure. A copy of Rose’s radiant mind is uploaded to a massive super computer called Aaru – a virtual paradise where the great and the righteous might live forever in an Arcadian world free from pain, illness, and death. Elysian Industries is set to begin offering the service to those who can afford it and hires Koren to be their spokes-model. Within a matter of weeks, the sisters’ faces are nationally ubiquitous, but they soon discover that neither celebrity nor immortality is as utopian as they think. Not everyone is pleased with the idea of life everlasting for sale. What unfolds is a whirlwind of controversy, sabotage, obsession, and danger. Rose and Koren must struggle to find meaning in their chaotic new lives and at the same time hold true to each other as Aaru challenges all they ever knew about life, love, and death and everything they thought they really believed.
My Thoughts
Death is one of the hardest things to deal with in life. The fear of the unknown, the fear for our loved ones and the pain of missing them can be overwhelming and crushing.
In this novel, the pain of losing a child and a sister is at the forefront. Rose is a young girl, her life was full of happiness and promise until she was diagnosed with cancer. Her health quickly declines and we watch as she goes from bitterness to acceptance of her fate – she just wants the pain to end. Like so many people can relate to, her family has the hardest time accepting her fate. They want her to keep pushing through, to keep fighting and to try just one more treatment. Koren, her younger sister, can not imagine a life without her sister, her protector and the one she always goes to.
Then enters a man who promises a way out – a way to save Rose and to keep their hope and connection alive. At the time no one could understand or even appreciate the technology that he is referring to. It isn’t until after Rose’s death that they fully understand what the man had offered them. The technology uploads a full copy of the person’s mind – in essence the parts of us that make us who we are not our outer shells – into a virtual world where there is no pain, suffering and they can turn it into whatever they want.
This novel was intense, heart breaking, hopeful and challenges what we feel about death and life after death. The novel was well written and powerful, many times I found myself in tears over the unfairness and the powerful emotions that flew off the pages. As the story evolves, you are full of hope and fear especially as the technology is brought to the public.
Aaru is a well written novel that draws you in and challenges how you feel about death, love and life – a definite must read!
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 4.5/5
About the Author
David Meredith is a writer and educator originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. He received both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City, Tennessee. He received his Doctorate in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.) from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee. On and off, he spent nearly a decade, from 1999-2010 teaching English in Northern Japan, but currently lives with his wife and three children in the Nashville Area where he continues to write and teach English.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
July 21, 2017
Bring Creativity and Imagination to Life with Stikbots
Kids love to create and design, build new worlds and create new stories. As children, we would spend hours making up plays, dressing up in costumes, using dolls for puppets and forcing our parents to watch all of our performances.
Technology has changed a lot in the last fifteen years but the desire to create and design has not changed. Children now not only have the power to create unique, exciting and adventurous stories but they can bring them to life and keep these memories with Stikbots.
Stikbots are bendable figures that children can easily move and pose into whichever position they want. Each figure also has suction cups on their hands and feet to help hold them into place once your child has planned out their scene. Stikbots began with a simple figure (that comes in roughly fifteen different colours) and has expanded into the animal kingdom with dogs, cats, monkeys and even a panda! The array of figures that your child can use really helps them to bring their story to life, we have a huge animal fan in our home and he loves watching animal documentaries so for him being able to recreate animal videos is huge!
To help your child bring their story to life, Stikbots also has the Stikbot Studio Pro Animation Set. This set includes two Stikbots, a stage (that comes in blue and green colours that is easily interchanged), tripod and two prop boxes. When you use the green stage, you can easily add in animated backgrounds (think space, disco and more) while using the Stikbot App.
We loved the Stikbots and how easy they were to use and create images and videos. We downloaded the app first so that we could fully take advantage of the green stage features. The app was easy to download and even easier to use. The figures themselves are very easy to manipulate into different positions and the suction cups worked perfectly to hold them into place on the stage and props. Our youngest (6) had no problem figuring out how to place the figures and use the props to make them appear to float or jump in the air. Once they placed their Stikbots and chose their background in the app, they had the option to either take a picture or video of their creation. After they had taken the photo or video, they could edit the image by cropping, adding wording, images and more through the app.
The Giveaway!
My Canadian and American readers can now enter to win their Stikbots prize pack! Enter via the Rafflecopter form below – good luck!
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
July 21, 2017
My Daughter’s Legacy Book Review
A thrilling tale of two women longing to follow God’s leading, make the most of second chances, and find true love at last.
About My Daughter’s Legacy
A thrilling tale of two women longing to follow God’s leading, make the most of second chances, and find true love at last.
Virginia, 1864
Therese Jennings cannot abide the thought of owning slaves. When her widowed mother inherits a plantation, Therese flees to Civil War Richmond, where she works as a governess by day and tends to wounded soldiers at night. But when trouble befalls her family, can she reconcile her obligations with her beliefs? And will love-whether with an old beau or a handsome new suitor-ever fit in her broken world?
Virginia, Present Day
Nicole Talbot’s life is back on track after years of substance abuse. Home from college for the summer, she’s finally ready to share a shocking secret, one that raises new questions about a traumatic childhood experience. But when facts she uncovers cast doubt on her family’s legacy, she must risk all that she’s gained-her fresh start, her family’s trust, and her growing relationship with a new man-to unlock the secrets of the past.
My Thoughts
An incredible story of two women born years apart who face similar struggles and are tied together not only by family but by the mysterious disappearance of an important family artifact.
I fell in love with both of our main characters, Therese and Nicole. Therese is a young woman growing up in the South during the Civil War. She loves her home and her family but her personal values and beliefs are against everything that the South stands for. She struggles with the fact that her family owns slaves and their disregard for her feelings. We watch as throughout the novel, she grows from a quieter young woman who listens to the wishes of her Mother and her deceased Father, to a young woman who knows herself and has the confidence to walk away from her Mother and her plantation in order to stand up for her beliefs. I really liked her character the most – she was strong, independent, confident in her beliefs and courageous to stand up for them.
Nicole is a young woman who was traumatized by an incident that she viewed as young girl. It is something that hurt her so deeply, she became an addict. She had to work hard to overcome her addictions and regain the trust of her family and friends again. My heart would go out to her when she constantly faced doubt from those around her or when her past would be brought up. She had to fight hard to push past her history.
I loved how the authors intertwined the stories of the two young woman as they struggled with their own fears, breaking free of the chains that tied them down and finding hope and love again. Both young women must fight to have those who love them believe in them, trust their decisions and in the end solve a mystery that plagued both young women. My Daughter’s Legacy is a beautiful story that is well written and planned out – I would love to see a second installment for this book!
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 Authors
Mindy Starns Clark is the bestselling author of more than 20 books, both fiction and nonfiction, with over a million copies sold. Mindy and her husband, John, have two adult children and live in Pennsylvania.
Leslie Gould, a former magazine editor, is the author of numerous novels, including “Beyond the Blue” and “Garden of Dreams.” She received her master of fine arts degree from Portland State University and lives in Oregon with her husband, Peter, and their four children.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
July 15, 2017
Appointment with Yesterday Book Review
Appointment with Yesterday is, ultimately, the story of hardships overcome and a determined boy’s journey toward finding his destiny.
About Appointment with Yesterday
A poignant and compelling first novel, Appointment with Yesterday tells the story of Yanni, a cheeky and delightful Greek boy growing up in a small town on an island in the eastern Aegean.
Left in the care of his loving grandparents, Yanni endures the deprivation and terror of the German occupation during World War II and finally leaves his beloved homeland and family to rejoin the parents who had left him behind to make a better life for themselves in America.
Filled with heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of love, devotion, disenchantment, and dashed dreams, Appointment with Yesterday is, ultimately, the story of hardships overcome and a determined boy’s journey toward finding his destiny.
My Thoughts
Appointment with Yesterday is a beautiful story that follows the life of Yanni from his youth growing up in Greece to his teenage and adult years in America.
His story is one that I am sure so many older adults and their children can relate to. His parents left him in the care of his grandparents just before the war erupted in Europe. They left him in order to find their way in America and make money. A struggle that so many people found themselves in, leaving their old country to come to the new country to make their fortune. What they find instead is a bit shocking, it is not the life that they expected and they struggled with this new life and leaving their son.
When it is time for Yanni to join his family, he faces his own struggles – he is leaving everything he has ever known in his young life to be with parents he does not know in a culture that is so very unlike his own. We watch him struggle to get used to the culture, the people and their way of life. Throughout the story you feel so connected with Yanni and his journey. You want him to succeed but at the same time to never lose his roots and where he came from.
I fell in love with this special book and have re-read it several times already. I cried (and I was reading this book at the soccer field when this happened!), I laughed and my heart went out to Yanni and his family. You feel as though you are a part of him and his family. You are with him as he struggles and you can fully appreciate every step, every happy moment and every moment of pain.
Appointment with Yesterday is a beautiful story of a young man who comes into his own in a new country and in a new way of life. It is full of hope, perseverance, strength and faith. It is a definite must read for young adults and adults alike.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository and Books a Million.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Christopher Stratakis was born and raised in Greece. After moving to America, he graduated from Drexel University in 1951 and New York University School of Law in 1955. Shortly after joining the law firm of Poles, Tublin & Patestides in 1960, he became a partner, specializing in admiralty and corporate law.
He has written and published several articles, lectured on professional and historical subjects, served as Legal Advisor to several non-profits (pro bono), and was an arbitrator in maritime disputes. He is the author of Mnimes “Memories” (2010), a book of essays, short stories, and poems that he wrote as a teenager. In 2015, he co-edited Chains on Parallel Roads, a book published by Panchiaki “Korais” Society of New York. In recognition of his extensive community involvement, he has been the recipient of several awards from religious, governmental, and educational institutions.
Mr. Stratakis lives with his wife in New York City. He is the proud father of three and grandfather of three. This is his first novel.
The Giveaway!
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.