Book Four in this series, Blue Ribbon Trail Ride, find them raising funds to help support her autistic brother.
About Blue Ribbon Trail Ride
Thirteen-year old Kate and her friends came up with the perfect way to raise money for her autistic younger brother and others to attend summer camp, a horse scavenger hunt! As local businesses donate money and prizes, Kate keeps the entry fees in her mom’s antique jewelry box.
But when the box and the money disappear, Kate and her friends must unravel the clues, hold on to hope, and solve the mystery along the Blue Ribbon Trail Ride.
My Thoughts
An amazing series of novels for young adults. The novel is well written and thought out with characters that young adults (and even adults!) can relate to.
Kate is like many thirteen year old girls, who struggles with independence, her own wants and needs. She struggles at time with being patient especially with a younger brother who requires a high amount of care due to his autism. A lot of her parent’s time and money goes in to his care, and while she understands this as any normal child would she also struggles with sometimes having her needs put second. I love that Miralee shows this vulnerability and how Kate works through it and shows her understanding and love for her brother.
She comes up with creative solutions to solve her problems and uses her religious teachings to help guide her. In this particular story – first raising money through a scavenger hunt and then solving the mystery of the stolen box and money. I love how her faith is lightly woven into the novel to help guide and how easily young adults can relate this to their own lives.
This novel (and the whole series) will be a great addition to the young adults in your life personal library. They are well written and funny while teaching valuable moral and faith-based lessons.
You can find more reviews on the Blue Ribbon Trail Ride on the Litfuse Blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Miralee Ferrell is the award-winning author of more than a dozen novels. She and her husband live along the Columbia River Gorge in southern Washington State, where she enjoys riding the wooded trails and spending time with her grown children. In addition to horses and dogs, Miralee once owned two cougars
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book and the series in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Being an independent woman in 1913 London is certainly empowering, but Emmy Nation is tired of the damp seeping through her worn shoes and the hopeless grumblings of her stomach. Will she give in and betray her sisterhood for warmth and food in her stomach?
About Emmy Nation, Undercover Suffragette
When she receives an offer from Scotland Yard to boost her typist income by spying on the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), Emmy jumps at the chance. But as she grows closer to the WSPU women the lines begin to blur, and when a painful part of her past resurfaces Emmy begins to question her choices.
How far are you willing to go to secure your equality?
My Thoughts
A stellar novel from start to finish, that should be a required reading for all young boy and girls in high school. Emmy Nation is an accurate presentation of life for women during this time period and how they struggled for freedom, struggled to have their voice heard and the challenges they faced.
My heart broke for Emmy when she had to choose between warm feet and collecting information on the Suffragette movement. No person should ever have to make a choice like this. Emmy grows in knowledge and strength throughout this novel. She starts off like many of the women in this time period, unsure of themselves, their independence and their rights. Many hold this inner desire for independence but are terrified of the repercussions. Women are physically hurt, emotionally and financially betrayed. My heart broke multiple times throughout this novel. All of the rights that I take for granted were fought for so hard by women and even though I know this, it sometimes takes a book like this to drive this imagery home.
Emmy Nation is an important, historical novel that portrays the Suffragette movement in an accurate and detailed manner that is appropriate for all age groups. It is an important novel for so many reasons but I feel that this should be a mandatory reading for high school students. It is written in a manner that they can understand, appreciate and assist them with relating to their own lives. Our rights and freedoms were fought for with the tears, physical pain and blood of women. This novel opened my eyes all over again, gave me a stronger respect and left me craving for more. I want to know what happens Emmy and the sisterhood. What does she do next?
L. Davis Munro holds a master’s degree with a focus on women’s suffrage theatre and works in theatre and dance. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with her husband and her dog. You can connect with her on her website, Twitter and Facebook.
Author Interview
1. How did you do research for your book?
The research for this book actually started long before I began writing. I did a two-year Master’s degree in Theatre where I focused on the theatre of the women’s suffrage movement particularly in England. I really did the research for this book during that time. I studied a lot about the movement, the politics and the era in order to support the work I was doing in the theatre of the campaign, so that moved over to the book when I started writing. The second Emmy Nation book will feature much more of the theatre scene from London at the time.
2. What made you write a book about the suffragettes?
In many ways, Emmy Nation was created because of the research I was doing for my degree. I choose that period of history to study because I was fascinated by my own lack of knowledge on the suffrage movement. I had considered myself well versed in women’s history before my Master’s degree and was shocked by all that I didn’t know from the time. That is what started my academic research and Emmy Nation emerged from that.
3. Where do you write?
I have a hard time writing in public, so I generally write at home. I need silence and solitude for my most productive writing times. However, sometimes I need to shake that up so I will visit a cafe nearby to give myself the pressure to get something done instead of just awkwardly staring at the other patrons.
4. In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
Yes, absolutely! I actually find moving to paper and pen often helps me through writer’s block. It feels less permanent than writing in the word processed manuscript document, so I feel less pressure when writing on paper.
5. If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 3 books would you want with you?
Definitely a how to survive on a deserted island book. What plants are edible, how to build a shelter and start a fire, those types of things. I would also want some sort of choose your own adventure book, something that I can read over and over again and not get bored with. Lastly, I would want a notebook (is that cheating?) so I could record everything and create my own stories to entertain myself.
6. What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?
This! Publishing this book took all the courage I had. For so long it was just me and Emmy doing our thing and no one else could look in and judge us. Letting go of that safe place and releasing Emmy Nation into the world for anyone to pick up, critique and question, is the scariest and hardest thing I have ever done.
The Giveaway!
Win 1 of 2 prizes! A copy of Emmy Nation + $15 Amazon gift card
When a water vessel is filled with dirt and stones, it cannot be used to quench a thirst.
About Come Empty
When our vessel is emptied, there is an opportunity to fill it until it overflows with fresh, cool, life-giving water. Water that quenches, refreshes and soothes.
Our souls are the same: they can be filled with fear, doubt, and disappointment. Running over with unanswered prayers and lingering questions. When we empty the mess of our lives in the presence of God, we are offered an invitation to come. An invitation that allows us to come empty so that we can be filled until we overflow.
Come Empty: Pour Out Life’s Hurts and Receive God’s Healing Love guides you through fifty days of experiencing the fullness of God’s love and His ability to overcome life’s hurts. Each day, you will receive assurance of God’s presence in your difficult situations. Each devotion gives new vision and perspective when you’re hindered by emotional blind spots, and leads you to experience God’s peace and wholeness. When His invitation is accepted, He will set your captive mind and heart free to live fully by His grace. The question is not if you will get an invitation. The question is, will you come?
My Thoughts
Come Empty provides you with a daily five-minute readings and question work to help you understand the “empty” you are feeling at the current time and how to work through these feelings. There is actually eighty days of readings which is perfect for you to set out a time each day whether it be in the morning or evening, to reflect on your emotions and how you are feeling. She provides you with a scripture reading and helpful questions that really get to the root of your emotions. Each day is devoted to an emotion or feeling and I like how she organized the devotional. The beginning of the book starts with a great introduction to not only the subject matter but her personal life. We see how she struggled as a physician trying to be the support her patients needed but still feeling empty inside. It is a feeling so many of can relate to . I find even myself struggling at times and when I can work to empty my mind, thoughts and heart of these feelings and emotions, only than can I be at peace. Come Empty is an excellent daily read that you can start, pause and always come back to certain passages. It will become a book that you will need more some days then others but one you will always find yourself drawn back to.
You can more reviews on the Litfuse Blog Tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.
Rating: 4/5
About the Author
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a Board Certified internal medicine physician. She shares with audiences nationwide on the topics of eliminating limiting emotions, finding grace in difficult places, and experiencing personal renewal by drawing near to God. Dr. Dalton-Smith is a national and international media resource on the mind, body, spirit connection and has been featured in Women’s Day, Redbook, and First For Women magazine. She is the founder of I Choose My Best Life. Her other books include award-winning Set Free to Live Free: Breaking Through the 7 Lies Women Tell Themselves.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
R.P. Channing has just released his debut novel, Thirst Blood of my Blood.
About Thirst Blood of my Blood
Kira Sutherland
After a near fatal accident (and getting cheated on by her ‘boyfriend’), and beating up the lead cheerleader (with whom the boyfriend cheated…), and being labeled as having ‘issues’ in her school because she, umm, sees ghosts, Kira is left with two choices:
1. Continue her ‘therapy’ (where she’s told the ghost is a hallucination and also gets her legs ogled too often…)
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, a boarding school for “Crazies and Convicts” (as the social media sites call them.)
She chooses the latter..
Cory Rand
Cory Rand has not had an easy life. His mother died in a car accident when he was twelve, and so did his mother’s best friend…sort of. You see, Janice made a promise to take care of Cory just before she died, and so she lingers. Undead. A ghost that watches out for him.
Brought up in an abusive home, Cory quickly falls into a life of disreputable behavior. After his third offense (which was prompted by a girl, as usual – he has a weakness) he’s left with two choices:
1. Be tried as an adult and share a cell with a guy named Bubba (he thinks…)
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, which Cory is pretty sure is run by vampires. But, hey, at least he’ll get an education.
He chooses the latter…
It’s at Starkfield that Kira meets Cory Rand, a boy with an insatiable Rage who sees ghosts, too. As well as other things, other things from his past, things that confuse him, things like fire and witches and demons.
R P Channing started writing three years ago, but never published anything even after churning out over a million words of fiction. Thirst: Blood of my Blood is the first book he dared to publish. When asked why, he said, “Because it’s the first thing I wrote that my wife actually enjoyed reading.” When not hammering away (most literally) at his keyboard, he can be found buried in a book, reading anything from romance to horror to young adult to non-fiction to comedy. You can find him online, Twitter and Amazon.
Going vegetarian was an important decision for me but it has also been difficult to plan meals and keep up variety. It was also hard to explain my choices to family members and friends. Plant Based Cookbook makes the guess-work easy. It breaks down how to eat a plant-based diet and fantastic recipes to go along with it.
About Plant Based Cookbook
The health benefits of a plant-based diet are at your fingertips in this all-inclusive cookbook with 200 hearty vegetarian and vegan recipes, from basics such as stocks and sauces to appetizers, meatless mains, bakes and casseroles, grains and pasta, tofu, tempeh, and seitan, desserts, and more.
The Plant-Based Cookbook also provides nutritional information, tips on transitioning to a plant-based diet, making your favorite recipes meat-free, sources of protein, cooking techniques and tools, and advice for the newbie on easy-to-do plant-based cooking.
My Thoughts
A fantastic resource for those starting out on their journey to becoming a vegetarian and those who have already been on this path for a while. This cookbook will also be helpful for family members to understand the vegetarian diet and learn a variety of recipes to cook for their family members (it isn’t all about eating vegetables!).
The hardcover cookbook contains 200 recipes with plenty of different options to choose from, not a fan of a certain vegetable or bean – no worries! Turn the pages and you will find plenty of other options. The book is divided into sections from breakfast to sides to desserts and breads. She also includes easy substitutes in her recipes if you are not a huge fan of a certain fruit or vegetable. The photography is stunning in this cookbook, large bold images span each page that make your mouth water!
The only thing I wish was included in this book was a breakdown of the nutritional value. I could easily add the recipes into my phone app but having it ready would have been nice too.
Trish Sebben-Krupka is a chef, culinary educator, cookbook author, and freelance editor. She is the owner of Local Girl Makes Food, a personal chef and culinary education business catering to clients interested in vegan, vegetarian, and eco-friendly diets. She is a former corporate chef for the Viking Culinary Center and Carl Schaedel and Co., Inc., where she created original recipes and menus; taught culinary classes in home food preservation, plant-based cooking, and sustainable cuisine.
Disclosure: I received this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
