book review Archives - Page 112 of 168

August 16, 2016

The House of Kane

In The House of Kane, Aislinn is hired to discover how manuscripts keep going missing and are suddenly published by Kane Publishing House’s competitors.

About The House of Kane

Aislinn Marchánt, a writer and editorial consultant, is hired by the major New York publishing company, Kane Publishing House, to help determine why several submissions sent to them have mysteriously disappeared only to be published later by another publisher. Are the editors at Kane simply not being diligent enough with the in-coming material, or is there something more sinister going on? Working from her West Palm Beach home, Aislinn quickly becomes involved with the House of Kane as well as with Caldwell Kane, the man who hired her.

As Aislinn works toward uncovering the various layers of truth of her former husband, her elderly neighbor, and Kane Publishing House, she continues to research her own novel, the story of a love between two people that becomes fractured because of the misunderstandings created by two different cultures. Her research takes her to abotanica where a Santerian priest reveals the truth in her own life and a destiny that is joined to that of Caldwell Kane.

My Thoughts

Missing submissions, fierce competition, lies and deceit are found throughout this fantastic novel by Barbara Casey. This novel showed an inside look at the publishing world while mixing mystery, deceit and a tad bit of romance that makes you not want to put the book down (literally could not stop reading this book!). Not to mention, I was totally jealous of her awesome job!

Aislinn uncovers quite a mystery at Kane Publishing house not to mention the underlying stories of her ex-husband, new boss, her neighbour and her own novel – it was quite an exciting time for Aislinn! While the mystery seems a bit obvious half way through, the twist on it was unbelievable and was not what I was expecting! It was very impressive the way the characters were tied into the story (especially one that you thought was just there to add a little extra into the story but played a role in the grand plot).

I loved not only the plot (which is very unique and one of the best parts of this book) but also the hints of a romance that could develop between Aislinn and Caldwell Kane. While an age difference exists and Aislinn does still have a strong relationship with her ex husband, a romance between these two would be perfect. Their personalities and interests compliment each other perfectly.

The House of Kane is a well thought out, written novel that will keep you guessing and reading to the last minute. You will fall in love with the characters, their connections and ties to the story. I loved every moment of this novel.

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

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Barbara Casey is a partner in Strategic Media Books, and president of the Barbara Casey Agency, representing authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. She is also a manuscript consultant and the author of numerous articles, poems, and short stories.

Her award-winning novels have received national recognition, including the Independent Publishers Book Award. Her novel, The House of Kane, was considered for a Pulitzer nomination, and The Gospel According to Prissy, also a contemporary adult novel received several awards including the prestigious IPPY Award for Best Regional Fiction. Her most recent young adult novel, The Cadence of Gypsies, received the Independent Publishers Living Now Award and was reviewed by the Smithsonian for its list of Best Books.

Ms. Casey makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with her husband and three dogs who adopted her: Benton, a hound-mix, Fitz, a miniature dachshund, and Gert, a Jack Russel terrier of sorts. You can connect with her on her website.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

August 15, 2016

The Loyal Heart

In The Loyal Heart, Robert came to Galveston to fulfill his promise to a dying man and look after his widow. He didn’t expect to find love in the unlikeliest of places.

About The Loyal Heart

Robert Truax, former Second Lieutenant and Confederate officer in the Civil War, made a promise to his comrade Phillip Markham. If anything happened to Phillip, Robert would look after his beloved wife, Miranda. She was his life, his world, his everything.

After the war, Robert is left to pick up the pieces and fulfill his pact. When he arrives at Miranda’s home in Galveston, Texas, things are worse than he imagined. Phillip’s name has been dragged through the mud, everyone in town believes him to be a traitor, and his widow is treated as an outcast. Even more disturbing is her emotional well-being. Miranda seems hopeless, lost, and so very alone.

Robert had thought his duty would be simple. He would help Miranda as quickly as possible in order to honor a promise. But the moment Robert laid eyes on her, his plans changed. He’s mesmerized by her beauty and yearns to help her in any way he can. He makes it his duty to protect Miranda, turn her reputation around, and to find some way to help her smile again. But it doesn’t prove to be an easy task—Robert knows something about Phillip that could shake Miranda to the core and alter her view of the man she thought she knew so well.

My Thoughts

In a time when many young men lost their lives and left widows and children to fight to make their way in a world that didn’t see them as individuals – Robert made a promise to his comrades, if anything were to happen to any of them they would take care of that person’s family. Robert would have never have known how quickly that this would come into play when his friend Phillip dies in captivity.

Phillip’s love of his life, Miranda, has been left alone to transfer their home into a lodging and suffers from being an outcast as Phillip has been marked a traitor. Robert is livid at the thought of his friend being named a traitor but can not because of the secret nature of Phillip’s role during the war. This is when a great mystery develops as Robert begins to try to uncover who is destroying Phillip’s name and who is the root cause of Miranda’s pain. Every time I thought that I knew who could be the culprit for spreading such awful lies, a new twist is added and I realize I am wrong.

As Robert tries to solve the mystery, he quickly falls for the lovely Miranda as he struggles to understand his loyalty to his friend who has passed away and this lonely young woman. Both characters are perfect for each other but struggle through their internal war with themselves with the notion is this relationship okay to develop? I completely understood their struggle but felt that Phillip would have been happy to know that the two people he loved the most would have found happiness and love in each other.

A fantastic novel from start to finish – I did not want to put this one down! It was well written, developed at a great pace and always kept you guessing at what/who is the culprit for hurting Phillip’s name and Miranda’s life. A definite must read!

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 Author

Shelley Shepard Gray is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.

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

August 15, 2016

The Wish Rider

In The Wish Rider, Dara asks her friends to help her locate her birth mother when she learns that she might be living in New York City. It is where they enter into a dark, terrifying society that shocks and is more then they could ever have imagined.

About The Wish Rider

Seventeen-year-old Dara Roux and her two best friends, Mackenzie Yarborough and Jennifer Torres, the three collectively referred to as the F.I.G.’s (Females of Intellectual Genius) because each has an intelligence quotient in the genius range, have just returned from Frascati, Italy. It was there that their much loved teacher and mentor, Carolina Lovel, discovered that her birth parents were gypsies, and that she had a connection to the Voynich Manuscript, the most mysterious document in the world.

Now, with graduation from Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women behind them, Dara asks her friends to help her locate her birth mother when she learns that she might be living in New York City. Relying on Dara’s gift for speaking and understanding foreign languages, the black and white images that stir musical cadences in Jennifer’s mind, and Mackenzie’s mathematical calculations that normally provide numerical solutions and answers to life’s most difficult questions, the determined young women tirelessly go from one address to another in search of Dara’s mother.

Their determination turns to desperation, however, as they encounter a dark hidden society more dangerous and terrifying than they could have imagined. It is there that Dara hopes to find out why she was abandoned in a candy store all those years ago.

My Thoughts

I was really excited to read this book, especially after falling in love with The Cadence of Gypsies. While I still really enjoyed Wish Rider, there were some parts I wish were drawn out some more to give us a deeper look into Dara’s exciting adventure and maybe a little more depth with the F.I.G.’s unique abilities similar to the first novel but Wish Rider was unique and special in its own way.

In Wish Rider, we find Dara on a quest to find her birth Mother. Unlike the other girls, Dara had been abandoned in a candy store in her youth and that is how she ended up at Wood Rose Orphanage. It was her trip to Italy with her friends and mentor, that made her want to discover her past – especially when she finds out her Mother may be in New York. She decides to make the trip with her best friends and mentor, Carolina, because there was no way she could do this alone.

When they arrive in New York everything seems to turn dark. I loved how Barbara ties in the gypsy heritage and knowledge from The Cadence of Gypsies in this second book. I was not entirely sure about Dara’s Mother and what she was involved in but it was definitely dark and scary. I wish this part had been built up a bit more as I was a bit confused at this part of the novel. I just wasn’t sure about Dara’s Mother, what she was involved with and how this connected to the F.I.G.’s.

Wish Rider is a well written, second book follow up to The Cadence of Gypsies. We get an inside look at Dara, who although she has had a difficult past had turned into a wonderful young woman. A great follow up to the first novel in this series. You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Barbara Casey is a partner in Strategic Media Books, and president of the Barbara Casey Agency, representing authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. She is also a manuscript consultant and the author of numerous articles, poems, and short stories.

Her award-winning novels have received national recognition, including the Independent Publishers Book Award. Her novel, The House of Kane, was considered for a Pulitzer nomination, and The Gospel According to Prissy, also a contemporary adult novel received several awards including the prestigious IPPY Award for Best Regional Fiction. Her most recent young adult novel, The Cadence of Gypsies, received the Independent Publishers Living Now Award and was reviewed by the Smithsonian for its list of Best Books.

Ms. Casey makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with her husband and three dogs who adopted her: Benton, a hound-mix, Fitz, a miniature dachshund, and Gert, a Jack Russel terrier of sorts. You can connect with her on her website.

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

August 15, 2016

Candidate For Murder Book Review

In Candidate for Murder, politics force Police Chief David O’Callaghan to nominate the most unlikely candidate for Mayor – Gnarly!

About Candidate for Murder

It’s election time in Spencer, Maryland, and the race for mayor is not a pretty one. In recent years, the small resort town has become divided between the local year-round residents who have enjoyed their rural way of life and the city dwellers moving into their mansions, taking over the town council, and proceeding to turn Deep Creek Lake into a closed gate community—complete with a host of regulations for everything from speed limits to clothes lines.

When the political parties force-feed two unsavory mayoral nominees on the town residents, Police Chief David O’Callaghan decides to make a statement—by nominating Gnarly, Mac Faraday’s German shepherd, to run as mayor of Spencer!

What starts out as a joke turns into a disaster when overnight Gnarly becomes the front runner—at which point his political enemies take a page straight out of Politics 101. What do you do when you’re behind in a race? Dig up dirt on the front runner, of course.

Seemingly, someone is not content to rest with simply embarrassing the front runner by publicizing his dishonorable discharge from the United States Army, but to throw in a murder for good measure. With murder on the ballot, Mac Faraday and the gang—including old friends from past cases—dive in to clear Gnarly’s name, catch a killer, and save Spencer!

My Thoughts

You can’t help but fall in love with Gnarly, who is one amazing dog that not only takes on crime but who is also now running for mayor?!!

Politics can be dirty and you sometimes find it hard to trust the individuals who are running, especially when they only seem out for their own best interests. In David O’Callaghan’s small country town, the people who have lived there their whole life have had enough of the big city candidates. What began as a joke about a dog running for mayor became a reality when Gnarly is not only nominated but becomes a front runner! Everyone can’t get enough of Gnarly.

The competition is fierce and very jealous of the attention Gnarly is getting and do whatever they can to ruin his reputation. They pull up his past, which is confidential and in turn this uncovers deadly secrets in the town of Spencer. A murder puts the whole race upside down and that is when the gang realizes there is more to this running then just a mayor’s position. Now they must solve quite a few mysteries.

Hilarious, mysterious and full of adventure, Gnarly and his human friends will have you on the edge of your seat unable to put your book down. Candidate for Murder is well written, played out and a story that you have just never heard before. I enjoyed every moment reading this book!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

Book Trailer

About the Author

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries. The twelfth installment in the Mac Faraday Mystery series, Candidate for Murder will be released June 2016.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV. You can connect with her on her website.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

August 9, 2016

Awaken the Love of Reading with LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens

What happens when two major family favourites come together? You get hours of reading fun in LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens!

About LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

A dark power is rising, and the galaxy is in danger in DK Readers L2: LEGO® Star Wars: The Force Awakens™!

Meet the brave new heroes who must battle to protect the galaxy. Join them in their fight against evil. Can they stop the First Order’s sinister plans?

About the DK Reader Levels

As children begin to grow in their confidence to read new words, Level 2 DK Readers become a great choice for them. The books are divided into manageable chapters for one reading session. Literacy experts encourage reading a little every day to an adult. Action-packed photographs bring to life the simple narrative, leading the reader to the text. To learn more about the DK readers and find out how to support your child’s reading, check out this great article.

Why We Love It

We are HUGE Star Wars fans in our house and couldn’t wait until The Force Awakens came out so we could enjoy it at home (Star Wars Marathon time woohoo). This book came at the perfect time for us and quickly became a bedtime story favourite.

I am a HUGE fan of the DK reader levels, they are geared to your child’s skill level and really helps to boost their confidence in their reading skills (so important). Reading can be frustrating for a child that is struggling and these reader levels help to eliminate that stress. This level two book has new words for your child but still includes an awesome story line and even better photographs to help bring the story to life. While we had to help him on some of the words, he had a great time reading the story to us and having his brother read the story to him (again and again – he can read this book several times a day literally!).

A fantastic, age appropriate Star Wars and LEGO themed book that your little reader will fall in love with. This book gives us hours of reading fun and is a reading confidence builder for our little man. A win win in our books! You can purchase this book on Amazon and Chapters.

Rating: 5+/5

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