Italy’s modern culture and enchanting sights set the backdrop to this Rome-antic comedy, The Love Fool.
About The Love Fool
Set in Rome. Follow the whirlwind antics of a publicist as he struggles to manage his first TV chef client, his new life, and an unexpected visit from his ex-girlfriend.
Alex recently moved to Italy for an opportunity at a PR firm in Rome. His first client is the beautiful Danish chef Pernille Bjørn, a popular model, TV personality, and cookbook author just entering the booming televised cooking show market in Italy.
Alex’s single-minded career focus is soon thwarted by Emily, an ex-girlfriend he hasn’t heard from in almost a decade.
Italy’s modern culture and enchanting sights set the backdrop to this Rome-antic comedy.
Lorenzo Petruzziello holds an MBA in global marketing from Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. His background includes publicity and marketing for many of public television’s popular cooking and travel shows. He lives in Massachusetts focusing on his writing. THE LOVE FOOL is his first novel.
Low Carb on the Go, contains more than eighty fast, healthy low carb recipes for busy lifestyles.
About Low Carb on the Go
Low-carb eating is a sustainable lifestyle choice for people who want to lose weight, stabilize blood sugar, or simply avoid the afternoon carb coma. Fitting a low-carbohydrate diet into your busy day is easy with more than 80 meal and snack recipes bursting with modern, vegetable and protein packed ideas such as Chia Seed and Turmeric Pudding, Coconut and Vanilla Energy Balls, and Chicken Teriyaki with Cauliflower Rice. Discover tips and tricks for healthy meal prep, and the best way to store and transport your low-carb lunch to keep it looking and tasting fresh. Each recipe contains nutritional information, including the all-important carb count, as well as a handy guide to prep time and equipment you’ll need. With Low Carb on the Go, you can plan your low-carb diet and stick to it with more than 80 delicious, healthy meals and snacks for anytime, anywhere.
My Thoughts
I have been on a low carb, high protein and vegetable diet for the last three years. It has successfully helped me to lose and maintain a loss of just over one hundred pounds. When I first started the diet, I was afraid of all carbs – growing up in an Italian home carbs were essential right? But they also led me to a weight gain and being obese. What I didn’t truly understand was that carbs were not my enemy – it was the choice of carbs in combination with portion sizes (to this day I have a hard time with portion sizes and my kids constantly tease me about how much food I dish them when they say just a little please!).
Low Carb on the Go starts off with a great section on how low carbs is not no carbs and the difference between good and bad carbs. This is so important for all individuals to understand, whether you are following a low carb diet or not. It helps to understand the effects of bad carbs on our blood sugar and the way we feel overall after eating bad carbs (I am sure you can all relate to the crash and burn after a sugar rush?).
Variety is key to this diet – it can be so easy to get into a rut and then give up on following the diet. Trust me – I have done it myself so many times! Recipes can become boring, you want to stick with what works or you may not have enough ingredients to complete a recipe so you may just give up.
Planning ahead and keeping variety in your diet is so important – your body needs it! I liked how this book gives you recipe ideas for every type of meal – from breakfast to snacks to breads (yes breads!) to vegetarian and meat dishes. The recipes were easy to follow and are spread out over two pages. One page being an enticing photo of the completed recipe and the second an ingredient list and directions. Each recipe also contains a breakdown of the caloric content including carbohydrate count, protein, calories as well as many recipes have tips included to ensure the recipe comes out as planned. This is a great recipe book which will be extremely helpful in planning out and building on your low carb diet with its easy to follow instructions and simple recipes. It is a great starting point for those starting out on a low carb lifestyle.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon,Chapters and DK Canada.
About the Author
Sandra and Mirko Stupning run the Low Carb Rezepte (Recipes) website, dedicated to everyday delicious low-carb recipes, which attracts more than two million unique visitors a year. The success of the website led Sandra and Mirko to publish their first e-book, The Low Carb Cookbook, to enthusiastic feedback. With a large social media presence (more than 130,000 likes on the Low Carb Rezepte Facebook page), Sandra and Mirko have successfully turned their collection of low-carb recipes into a high-profile brand. Sandra Stupning is a qualified nutritionist; both authors are passionate about cooking and healthy eating.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Are you looking for renewed energy, relief from stress, improved sleep, and much more? Then Practical Ayurveda is for you!
About Practical Ayurveda
Practised in India for millennia, Ayurveda means life-knowledge – it reveals the path to ultimate wellbeing by identifying your individual characteristics and patterns of health, and showing you how to bring balance to your life.
Find out Ayurvedic body type (prakriti) through a simple self-assessment questionnaire, and learn how to adjust your diet to suit your body type using recipes and ingredient lists, stretch and energize your body through yoga, and focus and relax your mind with meditation and positive thinking exercises. You can also look up home therapies and remedies for a variety of common ailments.
Whether you’re adopting this ancient lifestyle practice yourself, through your yoga practice, or as an alternative therapy, use Practical Ayurveda to apply its wisdom to your modern lifestyle.
My Thoughts
Roughly about three years ago, I introduced yoga into my weekly routine. What started off as just a trial became something I fell in love. I love my daily sessions both in class and at home. It helps me to shut down the negativity and everything that is bothering me, embrace quiet and thoughtfulness. It helped that I had an amazing teacher who embraced the lifestyle.
My only fall back? I didn’t know how to incorporate the whole body practice into my day-to-day. I knew I loved yoga but that is just one small piece of a bigger picture.
This book helped me to fully immerse, understand and appreciate the Ayurveda lifestyle from diet to sleep to exercise. It gives a great history and explanation of all the terms that you may have heard but didn’t quite understand. I loved the questionnaire that was included in this book to help determine which of three Ayurvedic body types you were because without determining this you would still be at square one. After completing this, you can either head straight to the sections that pertain to you (which are easily identifiable) or you can read through each body type to get a better understanding and appreciation of the complete lifestyle.
One of the best parts of this book is how they help you to introduce and adopt this lifestyle into your own daily routine. It isn’t a list of twenty things to do right now (but hey if you can do that all the power to you!) but instead introduce these items first and get into that routine, the following week add this and so on. It isn’t meant to be an instant, incorporate every aspect of the book into your lifestyle. I think we have all tried to do this before with any lifestyle change and from experience know that this doesn’t always work. This book will help you succeed in adopting these changes and arm you with the knowledge of why you are making these changes.
This book is an incredible resource and starting point for anyone that is interested in learning more or adopting the Ayurveda lifestyle. It includes step by step instructions, history and meaning of terms, recipes, stretches and yoga poses and much more to aid you on your journey. It is written in clear, precise and easy to follow manner which is perfect for beginners to more advanced individuals on their wellness journey.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and DK Canada.
Rating: 5/5
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
In Set the Night on Fire, Cottonbloom is the perfect place for starting over, finding your way back home and falling head over heels.
About Set the Night on Fire
Ella Boudreaux has a lot to prove to her family, friends, and foes―and to herself. So when her marriage ends she decides to invest her energy and money into a place that brings back some of Ella’s happiest memories: the Abbott brothers’ garage. Maybe, if she puts her mind to it, she can teach skeptical, stubborn Mack Abbott how to make the business a true success. Which would be a lot easier if the hunky mechanic didn’t make her motor run quite so fast and hot.
Mack was furious when his brother, Ford, sold his share of the business. He’s in no rush to team up with a wealthy divorcée who shows up to the garage in stilettos―and the longest, sexiest legs he’s seen in forever. But Ella’s grit and determination won’t quit…and soon Mack can see that she’s been down a few rough roads herself. Neither Mack nor Ella can deny the fierce attraction that’s revving up between them. Could it be that true love has been in the backseat all along…and they’ve finally found the key?
My Thoughts
This is a fantastic series set in Cottonbloom – a rough group of mechanics who have met their match in their female counterparts.
In this novel, Mack is the tough one – the one who feels like he has to carry the weight of his Father’s business, carry the greatest burden and has to hold the family together. He has given this burden to himself, no matter how much his brothers try to help him carry this load. His greatest fault? Holding a grudge and not being able to let it go despite knowing he is wrong. He is carrying a grudge against his Mother and it has prevented him from reuniting with her despite his brothers building bridges with her. It has prevented him from forgiving his brother Ford who sold his share of the business and no longer making the shop family owned.
It was this sale that brings Ella into his life. She has gone through a lot in her life (and to get the details you have to read the story!) but she has grown from her ordeals. She is tough as nails, stubborn but full of understanding, forgiveness and understanding (more so when it comes to others!).
These two are so much a like on the inside but complete opposites on the outside. They clash at first but as the story continues, you can see how well they complement each other. But they have a lot of their own personal history to overcome in order to move into the future, IF that is even what they want to do. They struggle with the idea of a relationship building between them especially with their turbulent histories and lack of trust.
This is a beautiful story of forgiveness, healing and moving forward. Both Ella and Mack need to heal their past in order to have any hope of a future. We watch patiently as they struggle to come to terms with their past, forgive those that they need to and build important relationships with key family members. We struggle along and pray with them that they will be able to move forward because deep down inside you can see how perfect they will be for each other. I loved every moment of this story!
Laura Trentham is an award-winning author of contemporary and historical romance, including Then He Kissed Me and Set the Night on Fire. She is a member of RWA, and has finaled multiple times in the Golden Heart competition. A chemical engineer by training and a lover of books by nature, she lives in South Carolina.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book, all opinions expressed are my own.
Hilarious and heartbreaking, Eat Cake. Be Brave is one woman’s inspiring journey of learning to stand up for herself in a world of naysayers, by the creator of the “Red Ribbon Week” video, which has over 150 million views.
Eat Cake. Be Brave.
My name is Melissa Radke, and there is a very real chance you have no idea who I am or why I wrote a book. But admit it, you’re curious!
Even though millions of people seem to like watching my videos bemoaning the trials of parenting, marriage, French braiding, faith, and living life as an anti-aging female, you may still be wondering who let me write a book.
I mean, books are written by people who have been interviewed by Gayle King and say things like, “You see, Gayle, I was having a root canal and I literally died in the chair. I saw heaven. Also, when I came back to earth I could speak Mandarin.”
Yeah, that didn’t happen to me. No Mandarin. Though I have been known to break out in song! (My voice was once described as a “ray of light in a dark world” . . . but I think my dad was being a little dramatic.) Although if Gayle King were to ever ask me I would tell her: “I wrote this book between taking my kids to the local pool and picking out flip-flops at Old Navy, and the only metaphysical moment I experienced came right after I looked directly into one of those mirrors with 10x magnification.”
I wrote this book because when I turned 41 I made a decision to be brave. To live brave, bolder and freer. You see, I thought our lives were supposed to change when we turned 40…but mine didn’t. Yet every piece of it changed when I turned 41; when I set out to prove that it wasn’t too late for me, that careless words wouldn’t stunt me and rejection would not stop me. And maybe, just maybe, it will take you reading about the journey I took to finding my sense of self-worth in order for you to rightfully believe in yours. This book is about how all the years of my life led up to the one that changed it. So, cut a big slice and raise a fork.
Here’s to bravery.
Here’s to courage.
Here’s to cake.
(And not the crappy kind, like carrot.)
My Thoughts
Have you ever been in that moment of change, feeling scared and nervous, questioning whether you have made the right decision or not? Then something falls on your desk or in the mail, and justifies every decision that you made?
That. This book was that shining moment for me. Melissa had me laughing, crying, heart sore and at the end so full of hope and inspiration it was unbelievable.
Melissa is a truly gifted writer – this story is told in such a manner that you feel as though it is a conversation with your best friend. The friend who leaves you in stitches and makes you laugh so hard you worry you have peed your pants. Her brilliance, honesty and kindness shows through each word and page.
Like so many of us, she didn’t have the easiest time in life. She was made fun of for her weight (by her peers, by those in the music industry and by those who should have known better), she felt betrayal and she felt loss. She suffered with depression, infertility, financial insecurity, marital problems and still has come out with this positive outlook on life. I am sure it wasn’t easy to make it to that point that she is at now and as she shows us throughout the book, it wasn’t a clear path. She had to make conscious decisions to love herself, be kind to herself, to forgive and to give herself the power to be brave. So many times throughout her story, I felt that it mirrored my own in so many ways. I felt her pain as my own – she is honest, real and raw. You feel every emotion, every decision as if it was your own.
Eat Cake. Be Brave. is the definite must have book of this year for all women – whether they are in their teens or adulthood. It is that reminder we all need to love ourselves, to forgive others for their own unkindness, to be strong when we feel we can not and to push ourselves every day. One of the lines that stood out to me the most as at the beginning of the book, when she spoke about inhaling. That every inhale is the start of a new opportunity and new chance to be brave. That has become my motto and has encouraged me to push my own comfort zones – accept the job that I never would have prior, to sign up for different courses that are not what I am good but to also love my family deeply and to let them know how much I love them. This was a beautiful story from start to finish by an inspiring woman who I wish I could just call up and have a cooking/baking afternoon with her and her family!
Melissa Radke‘s online videos, at print, have reached over 57 million people on her Facebook page alone in a little over a year. Radke’s “Upside Down French Braid” video has close to 10 million views and her “Red Ribbon” video has been viewed over 100 million times across multiple websites and media outlets. A Texan born and bred, Radke spent 15 years of her life in Nashville, Tennessee, where she worked as a studio session singer for Recording Artists after graduating from Belmont University. Since becoming a parent, she moved her family back to her East Texas hometown because the barbecue is better and the babysitting is free.
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