It all started with a chance encounter in the city with Blair, his late wife.
About Winter Frost
Chris Matheson and the Geezer Squad, working under the guise of a book club, dig into the events surrounding his late wife’s supposed death halfway around the globe. A state department employee shoots himself in the back three times. A CIA operative goes missing. A woman is targeted by an international assassin three years after being declared dead in a terrorist attack overseas.
Nothing is as it seems.
In his most personal cold case, Chris fights to uncover why the state department told him that Blair, the mother of his children, had been killed when she was alive. What had she uncovered that has made her a target? Who terrified her so much that she had gone into hiding and why are they now after him?
My Thoughts
This book had me on the edge of my seat right from the start – everything I thought I knew about Chris and his family was thrown right out the window and I never saw it coming.
This all centres around his late wife, Blair, who he thought had left him to advance her career only to be killed overseas. Imagine his surprise when so many years later, he sees her on a chance encounter! He is desperate to find out if this was truly her and if it was, why did she lie to him? Why did the government lie to him? Does he still keep moving forward with his life? Can he forgive her for their children’s sake? How does he even begin to tell his children?
What we uncover is a lot deeper and thicker then what first meets the eye – his wife was much more than she appeared and had uncovered something that made important people want her and those others who knew to disappear. They would stop at nothing to accomplish this.
I don’t want to give too much away but this book was by far the best in this series. I was not seeing any of those curve balls coming but they made the story. We learn so much about their history, find forgiveness to move forward and uncover one huge case of murders, deception and corruption. You will not want to put this book down!
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Audible.
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!
Now, Lauren has added one more hit series to her list with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries. Set in the quaint West Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, Ice introduces Chris Matheson, a retired FBI agent, who joins forces with other law enforcement retirees to heat up those cold cases that keep them up at night.
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Calm: Mindfulness for Kids shows that supporting a child’s positive mental health doesn’t need to be expensive, time-consuming, or difficult. Activities help children to de-stress, focus, and get moving while having fun.
About Calm Mindfulness for Kids
Teach your kids how to focus their thoughts and notice the world around them with this fun mindfulness kids activity book.
Mindfulness activities are a great way to teach children about their thoughts and feelings and how to understand them–while having fun at the same time.
This book is packed with activities–make a mindfulness jar, learn how to appreciate food with mindful eating, and get out into nature and explore the outside world. An illustrated journal section at the back of the book encourages children to make notes about their own thoughts and feelings.
Calm: Mindfulness for Kids has everything you need to know about focusing your child’s mind to help them enjoy and appreciate things that they take for granted every day, while boosting their confidence and self-esteem. Children are guided through each activity, to make sure they achieve maximum enjoyment and awareness. All children will learn and react to each activity in a different way and parent’s notes give advice on how to encourage children to embrace mindfulness in the modern world. Each specially designed activity is flexible for each child’s needs and inspires them to seek calmness and tranquility in all situations.
Our Thoughts
Mindfulness is something we hear a lot about in the news, media and research. It is an important to tool in the busy times we live in. It helps us to focus, pay attention and remain present in the moment.
Sometimes, children can be overlooked and brushed off as being too emotional or acting out. Children feel a lot of emotions but many don’t have the tools to help them understand their feelings and how to process them. We need to teach our kids these skills in order to be successful later in life.
What I really liked is this book is geared towards children. She writes to the child first – you as a parent can read a long and help but the child is the most important part in this book. She speaks to the child in a mature, open and caring manner that encourages your child to open up, read more and try each activity presented.
She presents six chapters and encourages your child to move through them in any order they need – the choice is up to them. The chapters include: focus, calm, move, change, care and reflect. Each chapter has activities, crafts and exercises that they can do alone or with a parent or a friend. Each section has helpful tools to encourage your child to reflect on the activity, exercise or craft – this helps to reinforce the learning process. We started with rainbow breath and unwind stress – these were also amazing for Mom too! Our next craft to try is energy slime!
This is an extremely thoughtful book for children of all ages to help them get in touch with their emotions, feelings and body and encourage a positive outlet for them.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Learn all about our beautiful planet with this fun and exciting book guaranteed to answer your child’s biggest questions.
About Did You Know? Earth
This Earth encyclopedia answers all the probing questions children ask about our planet, in a fun question and answer format.
Can you freeze in a desert? How do living things become fossils? What is a biome?
Earth explains volcanoes, earthquakes, oceans, space, and much more! It focuses on the subjects that kids really want to know about and the questions they ask, helping them learn new information.
Get your children learning with this amazing book, which is packed with fantastic facts for curious minds.
Our Thoughts
This beautiful hardcover book geared towards children is a great way to get children interested in the world around them and why it is so important we do everything we can to protect it.
The book covers our planet basics (how did the Earth form, why don’t things float) to the Earth’s surface (sinkhole, fossil, soil) to the Blue planet (waterfalls, icebergs) to the air (seasons, lightning, tornadoes) to living on Earth and why we need to protect it.
The pictures are bright and bold with good movement around the pages. It really helps you to follow the content and to keep younger children entertained. The content is perfect for young children, it gives them just enough to spark their curiosity but not too much to overwhelm them. I loved how each section had a true and false block! Some of these really stumped me but we had a lot of fun learning the answers and new facts (like did you know it didn’t rain for 14 years in Arica, Chile between 11903 and 1918!).
What is so important about this book is not only the learning around how precious our planet is (and how vital this is to animals and humans) but how we are harming it. One part that stuck out to me the most, was the quote that ‘some scientists think there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050’. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. Seeing that on paper, really helps to motivate you to do more.
This book provides you with not only an excellent learning opportunity for your child but to also start talking about the little ways that you can make a difference at home. Maybe you can recycle more, walk to school or work, participate in clean up days or even reduce the amount of water you use, start a garden. The possibilities are endless!
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
By now you are quite familiar with my weight loss and fitness journey as well as my very first treatment with CoolSculpting®, which I chose to have with the goal of achieving that extra confidence in my own skin after my weight loss. If you haven’t read my posts yet (gasp!), check out my weight loss journey here and my first treatment with CoolSculpting®here.
I have always been proud of my weight loss and perseverance through some extremely difficult times along the way. It was an uphill battle and I had to learn to give up things that didn’t make me happy and focus on myself (not the easiest task for any parent). Sometimes though, I look in the mirror and I am frustrated. I can’t always see that weight loss (funny – I never used to see the ‘fat girl’ in the mirror either) and I can be so hard on myself if the scale moves up and if my pants feel tighter around my waist.
Even with my maintained weight loss, I still have to be so careful to not slip into old habits. It is always too easy to skip a workout, eat that extra cookie, take that extra helping and the list goes on and on (why are the worst habits in life so much easier to do?).
I have noticed in the last few months, with added responsibilities at work and taking on the Team Manager position for my son’s team (really what was I thinking – completely going against my own advice from my first post but I am a sucker for those little sweethearts on his team!), I have not been as active as I used to be, I am feeling a bit more tired and I can notice the difference in my stomach and back area. Those little fat pockets can creep up so easily and they are so difficult to manage. I notice as soon as my stress levels get too high, my abdomen and flanks take a beating with extra fat storage.
CoolSculpting® is a non-invasive treatment that is performed in the office of a CoolSculpting® certified professional.[i]I had my first CoolSculpting®treatment roughly two-and-a-half months ago, done by Linda at The Plastic Surgery Clinic in Mississauga and it was an eye-opening experience. I learned so much about my body, treatment options to achieve my final goals and realistic expectations for my own body (follow my entire experience with the treatment here). CoolSculpting® is non-invasive[ii] and designed to have you back on your feet immediately following the treatment.[iii],[iv] The treatment works by applying cold temperatures through an applicator to targeted fat pocket areas on your body over a set period of time.[v],[vi]
The real magic happens after the treatment, as your body breaks down the frozen fat cells naturally and eliminates them through your lymphatic system – the time frame for this to happen is anywhere from one month to up to three months.[i],[ii]
The
bonus for patients? No extra work is required on your part. I almost thought
this was a trick question! Linda was telling me that I didn’t have to drink
more water, exercise more or wrap my torso? The treatment took only thirty-five
minutes and it didn’t require any tough follow-up care.[i]
BUT that being said, you shouldn’t go out the next day and eat everything in sight or give up on your fitness routine. You would be defeating the hard work your body is doing in breaking down those frozen fat cells. You should be maintaining a healthy diet and still regularly working out using whichever form of exercise makes you feel good. All forms of exercise are important – from walking to yoga to strength training.
Linda was fantastic and treated my flanks roughly two and a half months ago and this was my before picture (this was definitely not an easy picture for me to look at – aren’t we are own worst critics?):
She
was fantastic and noted that while I did have some loose skin, I did have
enough fat pockets that she could treat the area. We completed my first
treatment with no side effects, no pain and I was able to resume all of my
regular activities and work that same day. I can honestly say that it did not
feel like I had a treatment done that day.
On
my next visit to Linda, she had me stand in the same positions as at my
previous visit to take photos in order to get a good idea of how the first
treatment worked.
While
it may be harder to tell from the photo (and I noticed that I was leaning a bit
to the right in this picture and slouching with the angle of my shoulders which
is a very bad habit I have picked up from working on the computer), I have
noticed better definition down the sides of my abdomen as well as improvements
in how the skin on my flanks and back feel. It was smoother with more
definition and with less of a roll – it didn’t have that ‘squishy’ feel that it
usually had which would have been where my fat was located. Have you ever just
squeezed that fat roll? (I live in a house of boys, so we tease each other and
laugh about things like this all the time!) I had less of that fat to squeeze.
I left my second appointment with Linda feeling quite happy and accomplished. My visit with her reaffirmed what I had already been feeling – that my waistline felt smoother, more defined and I had less of those fat rolls on my back. I also had the confidence to wear a tight dress again and to show off my curves and be proud. With everything that I had been through in the last two years, this was a huge step for me. I have come so far with my body image acceptance and I am finally at a time in my life where I love my body how it is.
My
CoolSculpting® treatment was an exciting learning experience for me
and opened my eyes to a non-invasive treatment[i] that
is the perfect alternative to surgery. With zero downtime,[ii],[iii]
no pain and no extra requirements post-treatment, this is a fantastic
alternative for women and men who are looking to get that extra boost of
confidence by eliminating those stubborn fat cells that seem to haunt us on our
abdomen, arms and thighs.[iv],[v]
It helps you to naturally eliminate those fat cells without having to have
surgery[vi],
medical leave or stop participating in your day-to-day activities.[vii],[viii]It is an excellent alternative for individuals who are close to their
fitness and body goals but who would like to target areas of fat.[ix]
Remember
to always book your consultation first with a CoolSculpting®
certified clinician, this will ensure you are prepared with realistic treatment
options, expectations and not disappointed. They will go over every aspect of
the treatment to ensure you are mentally and physically ready. Treatment plans do vary based on your body
type, so this step is incredibly important to ensure you know what to expect
post treatment, you can visit http://find.coolsculpting.ca/find-a-center/
to find a qualified clinic in your area.
Disclosure: I received
the above mentioned CoolSculpting® treatment in order to facilitate
this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
[i] Zeltiq
Data On File. About CoolSculpting. 2017.
[ii] Krueger N, et
al. Clinical,
Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology 2014;7:201–205.
[iii] Nelson AA (ed) Avram MM. Fat removal: Invasive and noninvasive body contouring.
Wiley- Blackwell; 1st edition. April 2015. ISBN-10144433428X.
[iv] Zelickson
B, et al. American Society for Dermatology Surgery 2009;35:1462–70.
[v] Zeltiq
Data On File. About CoolSculpting. 2017.
[vi] Zeltiq
Data On File. About CoolSculpting. 2017.
[vii] Krueger N, et
al. Clinical,
Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology 2014;7:201–205.
[viii]
Nelson AA (ed) Avram MM. Fat removal: Invasive and noninvasive
body contouring. Wiley- Blackwell; 1st edition. April 2015.
ISBN-10144433428X.
[ix] Zeltiq
Data On File. About CoolSculpting. 2017.
[i] Nelson AA (ed) Avram MM. Fat removal: Invasive and noninvasive body contouring.
Wiley- Blackwell; 1st edition. April 2015. ISBN-10144433428X.
[i] Zelickson
B, et al. American Society for Dermatology Surgery 2009;35:1462–70.
[ii] Klein
KB, et al. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine
2009;41:785–90.
[i] Zeltiq
Data On File. About CoolSculpting. 2017.
[ii] Zeltiq
Data On File. About CoolSculpting. 2017.
[iii] Krueger N, et
al. Clinical,
Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology 2014;7:201–205.
[iv] Nelson AA (ed) Avram MM. Fat removal: Invasive and noninvasive body contouring.
Wiley- Blackwell; 1st edition. April 2015. ISBN-10144433428X.
[v] Kilmer
SL. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine
2017;49:63–68.
[vi] Kilmer
SL, et al. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine
2016;48:3–13.=
Drone Strike takes you on a fast-paced adventure across the Mediterranean, into Mexico, finally arriving in the States.
About Drone Strike
Karim’s family is killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, collateral damage. The Islamic State in the Levant exploits his rage, recruiting him for a terrorist attack on the U.S., and only Anthony Provati can stop him. Drone Strike takes you on a fast-paced adventure across the Mediterranean, into Mexico, finally arriving in the States. Drone Strike explores the psychological realities that seduce Karim to commit an act of terror, includes a love story between Moslem Karim and Miriam, a Christian woman he defends in Turkey and highlights the plight of Middle Eastern and Central American refugees.
My Thoughts
Drone Strike is intense, full of emotion, raw, painful and touches on the human perspective of conflict.
Karim loves his family and will do anything to keep them safe in Iraq even though his wife has pressured him to move them, he feels they will be safe. This all changes one day when his family is killed by a US drone strike as collateral damage. He is left full of anger, hate and bitterness. He will do anything to avenge his family and these emotions make him prey to others with dangerous plots.
This takes Karim down a very dangerous path of death, murder and suffering. We witness Karim be conflicted at times on what he is doing especially after he meets Miriam, a young Christian woman whose family was murdered by the men he is helping. They develop a relationship that you never see coming but one that is built on shared pain and understanding. Despite being from different backgrounds, their shared loss brings them together.
This is an intense but thrilling novel from start to finish. It builds up dramatically and leaves you not wanting to put the book down. There are so many tiny pieces woven into this story and this adds to how the plot unravels. I loved every moment of this novel and could not put it down.
As a former International Executive Vice President of 3M, Joe Giordano’s experience included running a business in the Middle East out of Athens, Greece. Born in New York, he’s had first-hand experience with the cultures and most of the locations in Drone Strike.
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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