Author: cvegnad

May 28, 2019

The Earl Next Door

What does an independent young widow really want? One determined suitor is about to find out!

About The Earl Next Door

When Adeline, Dowager Countess of Wake, learns of her husband’s sudden death, she realizes she’s free. At last, she can do, go, and be as she pleases. Finally, she can have the life she has always dreamed of. She doesn’t need, or want, to remarry. Especially not the supremely dashing future Marquis of Marksworth, who makes Adeline yearn for his desire.

Lord Lyonwood, son of a philandering marquis, will not be like his father. He wants to run his estates and watch them flourish—and find a wife who brings love to his life. When he meets spirited and self-reliant Adeline in a case of near-scandalous mistaken identity, Lyon feels he’s met his match. But Adeline isn’t interested in a marriage proposal. She will only accept becoming his lover—and Lyon finds it hard to refuse. Unless the fire of his passion can melt Adeline’s resolve.

My Thoughts

This story features an extremely strong, independent, fierce female character who knows what she wants and goes for it. This can be contrary to the type of female leads we see during this time period. Adeline had a rough past in her first marriage and when her husband died, she realizes she is free and she will never let anyone hold her down again. While this is fantastic in so many ways, it may also hold her back as we soon come to find out. Despite this, I loved her character to bits.

Enter Lyon – the handsome, funny and determined young man from next door. While they get off on the wrong foot, he can’t help but be swept away by Adeline. While she may not have been what he had been looking for, her spirit is what hooks him. He loves her independence and willingness to stand up for what is right and for herself.

This was a sweet story of learning to let go of our past and not let it define our future. Adeline was so stuck in her past, that she was losing out on something potentially so amazing. You kept wanting to give her a little shake and some common sense in the right direction. Can they move past their history? Can they build a future together? Or is her past too much for her to bury? This novel is sweet, funny romance that will be perfect for the upcoming summer months.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author AMELIA GREY read her first romance book when she was thirteen and she’s been a devoted reader of love stories ever since. Her awards include the Booksellers Best, Aspen Gold, and the Golden Quill. Writing as Gloria Dale Skinner, she won the coveted Romantic Times Award for Love and Laughter and the prestigious Maggie Award. Her books have sold to many countries in Europe, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, and most recently to Japan. Several of her books have also been featured in Doubleday and Rhapsody Book Clubs. Amelia is the author of over twenty-five books. She’s been happily married to her high school sweetheart for over thirty-five years and she lives on the beautiful gulf coast of Northwest Florida.

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

May 27, 2019

The Revolutionist Book Review

Two families escape the tyranny of their homelands, and their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s.

About The Revolutionist

Two different families escape from the political tyranny of their respective homelands, the Josephsons from Sweden and Matias and Kurt Bauman, brothers from Germany and Austria Hungary, with the aid of a Viennese opera diva, Sophie Augusta Rose, and Jean Guenoc, a former Jesuit priest, family friend and protector and partisan of the French underground. Their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s.

Ingrid and Olaf Josephson settle on a small wheat farm in North Central Minnesota to raise their children, Newt and Julie. Among the Jewish entrepreneurs forced to leave Germany and Austria-Hungary, Matias and Kurt Bauman re-establish their transportation company in Chicago, Illinois. In search of a secret list of insurgent social democrats, the bounty hunter assassin, Luther Baggot, tracks his victims to the American heartland. Following the murder of their mother and father, Newt, Julie, and their friends, Aaron and Beth Peet, hide from the killer in a Northern Minnesota logging camp. Believing the children have taken possession of the list, Luther tracks them down and they are forced to flee again, this time to Chicago where a different world opens up to them as they are thrust into the turmoil and violence of an urban society and economy careening into the new century.

My Thoughts

This is a fantastic, well written novel from start to finish, I could not put it down.

It starts off with the daring escape of two families from Sweden and Germany and Hungary. They are forced to escape and leave behind their world due to the political views and being supports of the socialism movement. The families escape to America and you would think that their nightmare is over but someone is determined to ensure that they will not escape. Luther, a hired bounty hunter, follows them to America and kills Ingrid and Olaf when they refuse to give him the secret list of social democrats.

This sets their children down a very unique and interesting past. With no parents and no one to protect them, they must seek out their own future – first in a lumber camp and then in Chicago. The children are exposed to the good and the bad of the world. You are never really to sure if the children have escaped the clutches of Luther.

This was an excellent, well written and planned out historical novel. He touches on some difficult topics but does so with fact and respect. It is a novel full of hope and loss that you will not want to put down. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Robert is published by Tell-Tale Publishing Group LLC / Wise Words Publishing under a multi-book contract. The author of four previous earlier novels, Robert infuses his books with unique dynamic stories and characters that portray social and cultural conflicts of their time. His career encompasses many years as a business consultant that have given him access to a wide range of organizations and an appreciation for people in all areas of society. His life experience is reflected in the literary quality of his work. Born and raised in the Middle-West, he has traveled throughout the United States and abroad.

Now retired, he resides with his wife in Southern California where he devotes full-time to writing. Robert is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Masters Degree in Communications at the University of California, Los Angeles where he received the Samuel Goldwyn and Donald Davis Literary Awards.

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

May 27, 2019

Velvalee Dickinson: The “Doll Woman” Spy

Velvalee Dickinson: The “Doll Woman” Spy is a carefully researched glimpse into the “Doll Woman’s” life as a collector of dolls, and as the highest paid American woman who spied for the Imperial Japanese Government during World War II.

About Velvalee Dickinson: The “Doll Woman” Spy

Velvalee Dickinson was born in Sacramento, California, graduated from Stanford University, married three times, and then in the early 1930s moved to New York City where she eventually opened her own exclusive doll shop on the prestigious Madison Avenue. It was there that she built her reputation as an expert in rare, antique, and foreign dolls. She traveled extensively around the country lecturing and exhibiting her dolls while building a wealthy clientele that included Hollywood stars, members of high society, politicians, and other collectors.

When medical bills started to accumulate because of her husband’s poor health and business started to fail with the onset of World War II, she accepted the role as a spy for the Imperial Japanese Government. By hiding coded messages in her correspondence about dolls, she was able to pass on to her Japanese contacts critical military information about the US warships. After surveilling Velvalee for over a year, the FBI arrested her and charged her with espionage and violation of censorship laws. She became the first American woman to face the death penalty on charges of spying for a wartime enemy.

My Thoughts

This book intrigued me right from the start – I had never heard of Velvalee Dickinson and even the idea of using dolls to put through messages!

This is an incredibly informative story that is not overwhelming, heavy on too many facts or too lengthy. She gives you an incredible look into the life of Velvalee – how she started in the doll business and what turned her to spying. She is a woman who really made quite something of herself, while even committing such a grave crime, she gained quite the reputation as someone who had extensive knowledge in her area of expertise and held herself with grace. At times, I almost felt bad for her but then at other times when she tried to blame her deceased husband, you almost get a different look at this woman. You never really know is she truly innocent and forced to commit the crime, did she do it for her husband or did she do it for selfish reasons?

I loved that while it is a biography on her life, the way Barbara writes it almost feels like a story as well. You want to keep reading to see what happens next with the way that she describes her, the situations and the way the plot unfolds. She did a fantastic job of putting this story together and readers will appreciate this.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Barbara Casey is the author of several award-winning novels for both adults and young adults, as well as book-length works of nonfiction, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Her nonfiction true crime book, Kathryn Kelly: The Moll behind Machine Gun Kelly, has been optioned for a major film and television series. Her nonfiction book, Assata Shakur: A 20th Century Escaped Slave, is under contract for a major film. In addition to her own writing, she is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency.

Established in 1995, she represents authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. In 2018 Barbara received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas. Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with her husband, and three pets who adopted her: Benton, a hound-mix; Reese, a black cat; and Earl Gray, a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.

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

May 24, 2019

What We Do For Love Book Review

Is having faith in yourself and doing the right thing always possible?

About What We Do for Love

Thirty-eight year old Nicole Adams has given up on finding love. Instead, the single mother focuses on the things she cherishes most—her sixteen-year old son Justin, her friends, and her art. When she convinces a prominent Los Angeles museum to feature a piece of her work, a large-scale installation, she thinks her life has finally turned a corner. Then Justin brings a girl, Daniela, home to live with them. Daniela’s angry parents have thrown her out of the house, because she’s pregnant with Justin’s child.

Shattered, Nicole takes Daniela in and, in so doing, is drawn into the inner circle of Daniela’s family—a frightening world of deceit and violence. Nicole struggles to keep life going as normal. Forced to deal with people she doesn’t trust or like, fearful for the future of both her son and the grandchild they’re expecting, Nicole wonders if she can do what she tells Justin to do: always have faith in yourself and do the right thing.

My Thoughts

I fell in love with this book immediately – I felt so connected to Nicole and her struggles as she raises her sixteen year old son on her own. She is such a strong, giving, kind person who faces the same struggles so many of us do. Your heart just warms to her and you want to reach out and hold her at times to give her comfort.

True to how life is, just when Nicole thinks she can move forward in life and lift her family of two up, life throws that curve ball. This time in the form of her son’s girlfriend who is pregnant. Nicole is terrified for the two, as she herself was a young mom and knows the struggles. She has to come to terms with a lot but she is always there to support the young couple. She is the type of mother that people could only dream of having. Although I do feel for her as she does sacrifice a lot of herself in order to be there for others. When you throw in her sister’s crisis, you sit there and wonder how is she going to make it through everything?

The ending through me right off and was not what I was expecting but definitely added a fantastic twist to the plot.

This is an excellent read from start to finish and I have already re-read the book twice, it only gets better. You will love the characters and their honestly and connect with how their very real struggles and pain. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Award-winning novelist Anne Pfeffer grew up in Phoenix, Arizona reading prodigiously and riding horses. After working in Chicago and New York, she escaped back to the land of sunshine in Los Angeles.

She has worked in banking and as a pro bono attorney, representing abandoned children in adoption and guardianship proceedings. Anne has a daughter living in New York and is the author of four books in the YA/New Adult genres. You can connect with her on her website.

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

May 13, 2019

A Silent Voice DVD Review and Giveaway

A Silent Voice presents a powerful message about bullying, depression and forgiveness.

About A Silent Voice

Silent Voice is a gorgeous anime film with a powerful message about bullying, depression and forgiveness. The moving coming-of-age drama depicts the struggles of adolescence through its memorable characters and stunning animation.

When a deaf elementary school girl named Shoko is forced to transfer to a new school after a boy named Shôya constant bullies her, Shôya suffers over the consequences of his guilt for years. Upon entering high school, Shôya decides he must find Shoko, to make amends for what he did in elementary school and to become her friend. He meets new and old faces, and struggles with many complicated relationships and feelings in “this beautifully rendered anime” (Total Film).

Based on the critically acclaimed manga by Yoshitoki Oima, this release is presented in Japanese with subtitles, and with an English dub. Winner of the 40^th Japan Academy Award for Excellent Animation of the Year, A Silent Voice – The Movie makes its debut on home entertainment following its 2017 theatrical run in the U.S.

Our Thoughts

This is a very powerful and important message that many young adults and teens should watch and learn from. It is recommended for youth thirteen years of age and older, I feel this is most appropriate based on the story line and topics.

We hear a lot about bullying and the consequences of bullying and this movie tackles this right on. A young deaf girl is forced to go as far as to change schools because of how she is bullied. Her bully in turn becomes someone who is also shunned, no friends and bullied. It is when he is the shoes of Shoko, that he can truly understand the consequences of his actions. He wants to set out to try to make his actions right but also has to come to terms with his own actions and ask for forgiveness.

While a tough topic and parts can make your heart sore, it is an excellent topic starter for young teens. Because of the topic, I would definitely recommend it to be viewed by children thirteen years of age or older. The total run time of this DVD is 130 minutes.

You can purchase a copy of this DVD on Amazon.

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