Author: cvegnad

September 23, 2020

The Day the Hugs Went Away

The Day the Hugs Went Away is a great resource for parents as we try to find new and creative ways to teach our children how to continue nurturing relationships during the ‘new normal’ while following social distancing guidelines.

About The Day the Hugs Went Away

Sharing hugs has always been a special way to express our love with the people we care about. When suddenly in-person contact changes due to events of COVID-19, we all have to find ways to continue to express our feelings until the hugs return.

Our Thoughts

These past few months have been extremely difficult for everyone. I have found that as a parent, I am struggling. I am struggling in knowing how to talk to my children about COVID, about how they are feeling and even managing their fears. Children are facing so many fears and they don’t know how to express themselves. Children love to touch everything in sight, hug their families and have long conversations with those they hold dear. Suddenly, they have been thrown into a world where they are told they can’t hug Grandma and Grandpa, that their hugs and kisses may hurt the ones they love the most (I can’t even begin to imagine how this makes them feel) and they are no longer surrounded by their social circles.

I loved how this book addresses this big topic that so many of us are struggling with – the importance of touch and hugs, and how this is affecting how we express our love to the ones that are the most important to us. It celebrates all those fun ways we used to show affection through hugs – through squeeze you tight hugs, cuddle hugs and more. But what happens when we can’t share hugs anymore? How do we share our love? By getting creative! This book gives children excellent ideas to share their feelings with their loved ones that doesn’t involve direct touch. Some of them may be ideas you have already started – hugs through windows, letters, talking through Facetime but gives you great starting points to start talking about how you can show your feelings.

I loved the way the story flowed, it uses simple sentences that have a strong impact for both children and adults. It turns a scary topic that so many of us are struggling with, into a topic that a child can relate to. It gives us great ideas to cope with the loss of hugs (until they return again!) and allows children the opportunity to come up with their own ideas on how to express their feelings to family and friends. This is a great book for parents and children to talk about COVID, how we are feeling and what we can’t wait to do once the pandemic restrictions have been lifted.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Gwyn Drake has spent a lifetime finding ways to creatively communicate personally and professionally. In the midst of COVID-19, she worked with her three young children to write and illustrate their experience of staying connected.

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

September 14, 2020

Boy From Berlin Book Review

In a desperate race to stay one step ahead of the Nazis, Käfer is called on to be braver and more resourceful than he ever imagined possible.

About Boy From Berlin

Berlin, April 1938. One night, eight-year-old Käfer Avigdor uses his specialty toilet-paper roll binoculars to spy on his Mama and Aunt Charlotte. The whispered conversation he overhears alerts him to a danger he didn’t know existed and starts him rethinking who he really is and where he belongs. Within hours, Käfer and his family flee their comfortable life. In a desperate race to stay one step ahead of the Nazis, Käfer is called on to be braver and more resourceful than he ever imagined possible. But will it be enough? Boy from Berlin is based on real people and actual events.

My Thoughts

Boy from Berlin is the story of one family escaping the horrors of World War II as seen through the eyes of a young child.

This time period is fascinating and so important for young adults and adults to read about and then read about again. We need to learn about the people that lived in this time, what they faced and why they faced it, so that this never happens again. This tale is told from the point of view of an eight year old boy, who sees and hears all that is going on around him but is not quite sure what it all means. Why are people disappearing? Why do they have to leave their home and everything they love? Who can they trust? All questions and scenarios that so many young children likely faced during this time period.

Käfer is an incredibly bright, curious young boy. I loved his character and spunk – he would do anything for his family, which sometimes lands him in trouble. His clever thinking on his feet saves his family several times throughout the story, and I loved that this role fell on his shoulders. Children are so resourceful and bright, something that we sometimes forget. The story he tells is full of danger but also hope and mystery. Hope that they will finally find a sliver of peace as they escape the Nazis. I loved the added mystery of why they were actually escaping – were his parents holding something back from them about their ancestry?

This is an excellent novel for both young adults and adults. It is well written, excellent plot and characters. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon, Chapters, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Nancy McDonald began her career as a journalist on television programs that include W5, Canada AM, and Marketplace before going on to become a sought-after freelance writer, penning everything from documentaries to live-action scripts to comic books. One Boy’s War is the highly anticipated sequel to Boy from Berlin. Nancy lives in Stratford, Ontario, where she revels in Shakespeare, takes theatergoers on tours of the Costume Warehouse, and treads the boards with the Perth County Players. She also works part-time at Fanfare Books, Stratford’s only independent bookseller.

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

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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.

September 11, 2020

Minute Zero (Stronghold Book 1) Spotlight Tour

When the world ends in a heartbeat, suddenly old secrets don’t matter anymore. But new ones still do, and protecting the ones you love is the only thing that still remains.

About Minute Zero

Two sisters, one a trendy caterer on the run from a vicious killer, the other a country midwife. Because of a simple mistake, Lori Dovner must flee from the vicious mafioso Raoul Saldata, and her life goes from routine day to terrifying journey in a single moment. On the road with her two children, her only goal is to get to her sister’s Montana farm alive. But both Lori and Louise have been hiding a devastating secret for years.

Two brothers, one a Navy Seal on leave, the other a good man who wants to do right by his family. Captain Deacon Hale is taking two weeks to help his brother Roger and his wife Louise on their remote Montana farm. He loved Lori once, but has finally put her behind him. Roger Hale just wants to give his pregnant wife and two young children a good life. He has no idea about the betrayals that have been hidden from him.

Dangerous Identity.

Angela Jones is an FBI agent with a terrible debt that she knows she will someday have to pay. And when Raoul Saldata calls in that marker she has no choice but to comply.

Evil Incarnate.

Raoul Saldata as a child in Albania, would pretend he was a dhampir, the offspring resulting from the mating between a human female and a vampire. A myth of course, but the evil Saldata practices is anything but. And when he finds Lori Dovner, he intends to do a lot more than just kill her.

MINUTE ZERO (Stronghold: Book One) is an apocalyptic EMP thriller (with a touch of romance) about an ordinary family struggling to stay safe and find each other in the face of insurmountable odds, an abysmal loss of life and the dawn of a new, post-apocalyptic dark age.

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

About the Author

Could it happen? Would you survive?

Chris Jayne is author of the apocalyptic EMP series “Stronghold.”

Jayne is also the penname of a USA Today bestselling romance and thriller author who is has started asking “what if?” What if the lights go off? What if the food supply chain just… stops? The world could become an unfriendly place in a hurry.

Three years ago, Chris began exploring the “prepper” lifestyle, and hopes that if TEOTWAWKI would actually happen, she would be in a position to protect her family and loved ones.

She now spends her days splitting her time between her romance writing and her apocalyptic and dystopian fiction novels. Because what’s more fun than imagining the end of the world from the comfort of your couch? And if the end of the world has a few sexy Navy Seals in it? All the better!

She loves writing stories exploring how ordinary people cope with extraordinary circumstances, especially situations where the normal comforts, conveniences, and rules are stripped away.

You can connect with her on her website.

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Disclosure: This is a spotlight tour, I did not receive compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 9, 2020

Queen of the Owls Spotlight

A chance meeting with a charismatic photographer will forever change Elizabeth’s life.

About Queen of the Owls

A chance meeting with a charismatic photographer will forever change Elizabeth’s life. Until she met Richard, Elizabeth’s relationship with Georgia O’Keeffe and her little-known Hawaii paintings was purely academic. Now it’s personal. Richard tells Elizabeth that the only way she can truly understand O’Keeffe isn’t with her mind―it’s by getting into O’Keeffe’s skin and reenacting her famous nude photos. In the intimacy of Richard’s studio, Elizabeth experiences a new, intoxicating abandon and fullness. It never occurs to her that the photographs might be made public, especially without her consent. Desperate to avoid exposure―she’s a rising star in the academic world and the mother of young children―Elizabeth demands that Richard dismantle the exhibit. But he refuses. The pictures are his art. His property, not hers. As word of the photos spreads, Elizabeth unwittingly becomes a feminist heroine to her students, who misunderstand her motives in posing. To the university, however, her actions are a public scandal. To her husband, they’re a public humiliation. Yet Richard has reawakened an awareness that’s haunted Elizabeth since she was a child―the truth that cerebral knowledge will never be enough. Now she must face the question: How much is she willing to risk to be truly seen and known?

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Indiebound.

About the Author

BARBARA LINN PROBST is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, living on an historic dirt road in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her debut novel QUEEN OF THE OWLS (April 2020) is the powerful story of a woman’s search for wholeness, framed around the art and life of iconic American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Endorsed by best-selling authors including Christina Baker Kline and Caroline Leavitt, QUEEN OF THE OWLS was selected as one of the twenty most anticipated books of 2020 by Working Mother, a debut novel “too good to ignore” by Bustle, and “one of the best new novels to read during the quarantine” by Parade Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. It won the bronze medal for popular fiction from the Independent Publishers Association, placed first runner-up in general fiction for the Eric Hoffer Award, and was short-listed for the $2500 Grand Prize. Barbara has a PhD in clinical social work and blogs for several award-winning sites for writers.

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

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Disclosure: This is a spotlight post, I did not receive compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 7, 2020

Winter of the Wolf Book Review

An exploration in grief, suicide, spiritualism, and Inuit culture, Winter of the Wolf follows Bean who is determined to unravel the mystery of her brother Sam’s death.

About Winter of the Wolf

An exploration in grief, suicide, spiritualism, and Inuit culture, Winter of the Wolf follows Bean, an empathic and spiritually evolved fifteen-year-old, who is determined to unravel the mystery of her brother Sam’s death. Though all evidence points to a suicide, her heart compels her to dig deeper. With help from her friend Julie, they retrace Sam’s steps, delve into his Inuit beliefs, and reconnect with their own spiritual beliefs to uncover clues.

Both tragic and heartwarming, this twisting novel draws you into Bean’s world as she struggles with grief, navigates high school dramas, and learns to open her heart in order to see the truth of the people around her. Winter of the Wolf is about seeking the truth, no matter how painful, in order to see the full picture.

In this novel, environmentalist and award-winning author, Martha Handler, brings together two important pieces of her life—the death of her best friend’s son and her work as president of the Wolf Conservation Center—to tell an empathetic and powerful story with undeniable messages.

My Thoughts

In this story, we are introduced to your everyday family – four siblings, two loving parents, and a busy family life. Our main character, Bean, is an intelligent, compassionate and soulful young woman who shares a close relationship with her one brother, Sam. They have a beautiful relationship, one that I wish for my own children. Sam seems to be misunderstood by others – he has deep spiritual beliefs and feels connected with nature and animals. He fell in love with the Inuit way of life and from the glimpses we have of him – he incorporated this into many aspects of his life.

One moment, one decision changes this family forever. Sam dies in a traumatic manner for all involved – his Mom that finds him and his family that are left not knowing what they could have done or should have done to have helped him. Everyone believes that he took his own life and for the most part, everything seems to point to this. But in her heart, Bean knows this could not be true. Lost and feeling alone, Bean sets out to discover the truth. What she uncovers slowly and piece by piece, is forgiveness, understanding and an accident that breaks your heart.

Winter of the Wolf is a beautifully told story that made me cry, made me want to reach out and give Bean a hug and help her discover the truth. Bean is wise beyond her years, she shows strength, courage, and compassion. While the child in this story, so many times she takes on the role of caregiver as her Mother spirals out of control in dealing with her grief. Bean has a strength in spirit and mind, that so many of us wish we had. She knows her brother and is determined to find out the truth. I loved watching her grow emotionally and in her own beliefs (one of the most powerful moments came when the girls held a spiritual ceremony at a location that was special to Sam). I also loved the connection with the wolf – Sam’s spirit animal, as I think we all find glimpses of our loved ones that pass away in nature around us.

This is an incredible story of forgiveness, understanding and spiritual beliefs with an important underlying message to teens. I was not familiar with auto-erotic asphyxiation and was shocked to learn about this practice. I would have liked to have read a bit more about Sam and his connection to the Inuit way of life but I also appreciated how Bean felt a different connection to faith and religion, outside of a building and mostly in nature. Winter of the Wolf is a well written novel that is suitable for young adults and adults alike.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Martha Hunt Handler grew up in northern Illinois dreaming about wolves and has always understood that her role in this lifetime is to tell stories and be a voice for nature. She has been an environmental consultant, a magazine columnist, an actress, and a polar explorer, among other occupations. She has also driven across the country in an 18-wheeler and been a grand-prize winner of The Newlywed Game.

Soon after she and her family relocated from Los Angeles to South Salem, New York, she began to hear wolves in her backyard. This was the start of her twenty-plus-year career as an advocate for wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center, where she currently serves as Board President.

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