Category: book review

September 15, 2017

Touch of Fondness Audiobook Review

Four friends. Four college grads. Four people figuring out that life doesn’t always turn out the way you expected.

About Touch of Fondness

Brielle Reyes may not have post-college life planned out like some of her friends do, but she figures she’ll work for her mother’s home cleaning service while job hunting for something that makes use of her history and philosophy degrees. It’ll work out as long as she doesn’t fall in love. Her last relationship was a disaster and she has no idea where she’ll be in a few weeks, let alone the rest of her life. Since the only guy in her age range she sees now on a regular basis is cantankerous if handsome client Archer Ward, she probably won’t have a hard time sticking to that vow. Probably.

Archer Ward likes very few things: illustrating as a somewhat-celebrated comic artist and his privacy. When his meddling mother hires him a cleaning service on an almost daily basis because she doesn’t fully trust her son to live on his own with his disability, he’s at first annoyed – even if his house cleaner is the most beautiful woman he’s ever spent more than a few minutes with. When he realizes her dreams may take her far outside of his restricted orbit, he has to decide whether to stifle his interest in her or risk messing up her plans to explore if there’s something more between them.

Neither can deny they’re growing a little fond of each other, even if falling in love just now makes no sense whatsoever. But how often does love ever make perfect sense?

My Thoughts

Touch of Fondness is a cute, heart warming and fun audiobook to listen to. In our story, we have our two main characters Brielle and Archer who while seeming to be opposites begin to develop an attraction towards each other.

Brielle is your average girl, graduating with a degree who is not quite sure what to do with her life. She is still learning how to deal with her past, her hurt and painful past relationship and how she moves forward into her future. Archer is a kind soul who feels as though there is no one out there for him. He feels that Brielle is above being attracted to him and it actually kind of hurts to think that he would feel that way.

I loved how the story drew you into the emotions and was incredibly relatable. The story showed that love doesn’t follow guidelines and we are all beautiful and special. The story gave a very intimate view into Archer’s life and how he felt and I really enjoyed that. We were able to feel his emotions and understand his viewpoint. Brielle helps to show him how truly special he is and he gives back his own gift to Brielle about showing her love.

This was a great audiobook to listen to although the voice of the narrator did not quite match the tone I would have expected from the characters. I did love the story line though – it was sweet, fun and a great lesson in life.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Joy Penny writes books, devours stories, and geeks out about everything from classic romance books to manga. When she’s not working as a freelance writer and book editor, she’s probably immersed in her favorite TV shows, period dramas, and anime series. She also writes YA speculative fiction as Amy McNulty, and one of her books, Nobody’s Goddess, won The Romance Reviews’ Summer 2016 Readers’ Choice Award for Young Adult Romance.

About the Narrator

Susan Marlowe is an audio book narrator/voice artist. For more information, contact her at smthom76@gmail.com.

Book Trailer

The Giveaway!

Touch of Fondness Giveaway: $10 Amazon Gift Card

Disclosure: I received digital files of this audiobook in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 15, 2017

Gathering the Threads Book Review

Gathering the Threads is the third and final novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series.

About Gathering the Threads

Finally back in the Old Order Amish world she loves, will Ariana’s new perspectives draw her family closer together-or completely rip them apart?

After months away in the Englisch world, Ariana Brenneman is overjoyed to be in the Old Order Amish home where she was raised. Yet her excitement is mixed with an unexpected apprehension as she reconciles all she’s learned from her biological parents with the uncompromising teachings of her Plain community. Although her childhood friend, ex-Amish Quill Schlabach, hopes to help her navigate her new role amongst her people, Ariana’s Daed doesn’t understand why his sweet daughter is suddenly questioning his authority. What will happen if she sows seeds of unrest and rebellion in the entire family?

Meanwhile, Skylar Nash has finally found her place among the large Brenneman family, but Ariana’s arrival threatens to unravel Skylar’s new identity-and her sobriety. Both Ariana and Skylar must discover the true cords that bind a family and community together and grasp tight the One who holds their authentic identities close to His heart.

My Thoughts

Gathering the Threads is an intense and thought-provoking look at the life of Ariana, who in one moment had her whole life changed. She always grew up thinking she was Amish and that her parents were her parents. Fate changed this when she found out she was switched at birth. She was then thrust into the Englisch world quickly and without preparation. She was expected to change her thoughts, beliefs and even her appearance to suit her birth parents. This world was not for her and she could not wait to return to her old life.

Little did she know what an impact that small exposure would have on her life! She began to question her Daed and her elders in the Amish community. She craved freedom, independence and support as a woman. She still holds true to her love and belief in God but she questions the mad made decisions and rules that govern her community. It is this questioning that begins to have her blacklisted in the community. She refuses to cave into the roles that men have created for the women instead she quotes the word of God to back up her beliefs.

The other young girl who was switched at birth, Skylar, goes through her own transformation as well. At first she hates all things Amish – the lifestyle, the clothes, the culture and way of life. She slowly begins to appreciate the beliefs, the focus on family and their love and support of each other. She grows mentally and emotionally and it is beautiful to watch.

Both of these young girls grow as women and strong advocates of others, community and family all within the belief of love, family and forgiveness. They go through so much both individually and together as a family but somehow they pull through. Their experiences in both cultures helps them grow and learn to respect each other.

Gathering the Threads is a truly beautiful book of growth, hope, family and community. It uses scripture to help us understand God’s love for us, family and our greater role in the community around us.

You can find more reviews on the Litfuse blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of this book here.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Cindy Woodsmall is the “New York Times” and CBA best-selling author of nineteen works of fiction and non-fiction with more than a million copies sold. Her connection with the Amish community has been featured in national media outlets such as ABC’s “Nightline,” the “Wall Street Journal,” and a National Geographic documentary on Amish life. Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains.

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

September 11, 2017

Magnolia Nights Book Review

From the author of the bestselling Sweeney Sister Series and Sweet Tea Tuesdays comes a new novel of passion, intrigue and redemption, Magnolia Nights.

About Magnolia Nights

Ellie Pringle has spent endless hours and countless dollars working with a therapist to remember the lost years of her childhood. She’s baffled and more than a little intrigued when the grandmother she hasn’t seen in thirty-four years dies and leaves her a fortune. The time has come to face her past in person. Still reeling from a recent breakup of a long-term relationship, and with nothing to keep her in San Francisco, Ellie packs her meager belongings and boards a plane for the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Standing in the entryway of her grandmother’s antebellum home on South Battery Street in Charleston, Ellie faces the first of many ghosts who will soon haunt her. On her first night in the creepy, creaking mansion, as she’s perusing the titles in a dusty bookcase, she comes across her deceased mother’s leather-bound journal. Her mother’s words create more unanswered questions and send her on a quest to find more journals. As Hurricane Lorene bears down on the South Carolina coast, Ellie encounters Juan Hagood, a handsome architect who has the talent to restore her dilapidated mansion and the charm to mend her broken heart. But as Ellie reads her mother’s diaries, they dislodge a stone in the wall that safeguards her memories, causing her world to come crumbling down. Revelations about her childhood lead Ellie on a harrowing journey of discovery that will hold spellbound until the dramatic conclusion.

My Thoughts

Magnolia Nights is another AMAZING novel by Ashley Farley. This book branches out to new characters, that I personally hope have their own series just like the Sweeney Sisters.

This novel has a bit of a dark and deep history. Ellie, our main character, has trouble remembering her past but it has so greatly affected her present. She has little glimpses of her past but can’t quite figure out if she is remembering something that happened or if it is her mind making up something. When she inherits her Grandmother (whom she hasn’t seen in years) home and fortune, she travels to where she spend the first years of her life with the hopes that this will help her gain back her memory. Her Father is dead set against this as he remembers just how bad she was when he had rescued her in the first place from her Grandmother’s home.

Against her Father’s wishes, she travels to the South to the home and begins to fill in pieces. As she finds her Mother’s journal, the world she thought she knew begins to tumble down. She uncovers a hurtful past with lies, emotional and even physical torture. Once these doors were opened, she can never turn back especially when she uncovers the greatest secret of all (which of course I can’t tell you BUT trust me it is a shocker!). It turns the book upside down and leaves our characters scrambling to understand, accept and try to learn how to move forward.

Magnolia Nights is a well written, planned out novel with excellent character development. Our ending leaves us hoping for another novel in this series – I just can’t wait to see what lays in store for Ellie and Juan (not to mention all of the family secrets they uncovered!). This was another excellent book by Ashley Farley that you will not want to put down – it was too full of excitement and surprises! It is a definite must read novel.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Ashley Farley is the author of the bestselling series, the Sweeney Sisters Series. Ashley writes books about women for women. Her characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing real-life issues. Her goal is to keep you turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning. If her story stays with you long after you’ve read the last word, then she’s done her job.

After her brother died in 1999 of an accidental overdose, she turned to writing as a way of releasing her pent-up emotions. She wrote SAVING BEN in honor of Neal, the boy she worshipped, the man she could not save.

Ashley is a wife and mother of two young adult children. While she’s lived in Richmond, Virginia for the past 21 years, part of her heart remains in the salty marshes of the South Carolina Lowcountry where she grew up. Through the eyes of her characters, she’s able to experience the moss-draped trees, delectable cuisine, and kind-hearted folks with lazy drawls that make the area so unique.

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

September 8, 2017

iGen Book Review

A highly readable and entertaining first look at how today’s members of iGen—the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later—are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation, from the renowned psychologist and author of Generation Me.

About iGen

With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and later, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smart phone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person—perhaps why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen-year-olds used to.

My Thoughts

Our children are growing up in a difficult time period. Everything is so different from when I was in my teens! They are growing up with technology I would never have even dreamed of. This technology has to have had an impact on their childhood and the way they connect with family, friends and others.

This book examines just how drastically this generation has changed (and looks at statistics from a broad range of cultures, ages and numbers). It looks at several areas where this generation has differed from their predecessors, such as religion, politics, family, work, sex and attitudes. It is amazing to see how the iGen generation has shifted with their thinking and mind-set.

As a parent with children growing up in this iGen generation, I think this book is a must read. It points out so many important facts that really make you think about your own parenting. Do I focus too much on safety at the risk of not allowing my child to learn and grow? Am I preventing independence and necessary life skills by doing things for them? Is my child spending so much time socializing online that they are lacking the necessary communication and verbal skills required for later on in life? What are the implications of all of this?

This book was a definite eye opener for me as parent. I can see my children in this book and it really made me focus on what I can do now as a parent to help my child prepare for their future. There are so many skills that I learned in my teen years that are not being passed down to my children. I loved that this book offered hope and suggestions on how to change behaviour now before children spiral out of control. The most shocking (although we see it in the news all the time) is the mental health aspect. This culture is hurting them with depression, anxiety and loneliness and this book tackles the whys of this.

iGen is well written and expressed in a manner that parents can understand and apply in their own homes. It is a definite must read parenting book especially for parents raising young children, teens or even planning families.

You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Jean M. Twenge credentials: Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, is the author of more than 90 scientific publications and three books based on her research, Generation Me, The Narcissism Epidemic, and The Impatient Woman’s Guide to Getting Pregnant. Her research has been covered in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and she has been featured on Today, NBC Nightly News, Fox and Friends, Dateline, and NPR. She received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and daughters.

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

September 6, 2017

The Nomad’s Premonition

Eric Martin is desperate to forget his past, one that almost cost him his future.

About The Nomad’s Premonition

Working in Paris as deputy head of a bank’s internal security department, Eric notices a high-speed trader’s uncanny ability to predict extremely profitable trades. Even though there’s nothing illegal about the activity, he knows the trader’s success is more than just luck.

But, no one believes him. Armed only with a handful of data and a powerful instinct, Eric searches for the mysterious trader on his own. He suspects that a predictive algorithm has fallen into the wrong hands.

Eric sets off for Istanbul to find answers promised to him by an informant. He finds an unlikely ally in Interpol agent Stephanie Brule. With Interpol wanting him back in Paris and out of the way, Eric’s quest is also hampered by the sudden appearance of his ex-lover, a boss he’s not sure he can trust, and a terrorist who always seems one step ahead.

Will Eric put an end, once and for all, to the nightmare that began when he accepted a job that was too good to be true? Or will his need for revenge and justice lead him deeper into a treacherous world he has no way of escaping?

My Thoughts

I loved every moment of this suspenseful book! It was full of twists and turns that you never really see coming.

Eric is a man tormented by what happened to him several years ago (events that occurred in the first book) but are retold throughout this story. He wants to seek justice in any way that he can. When he uncovers a series of profitable trades that just seem to good to be true, he knows he is on to something. The only problem? No one believing him. At times you wonder if they don’t believe him because they don’t want him to uncover the problem and if they are working for the enemy but you are constantly left guessing as to who is really helping him and who is the enemy.

This sets him off on a course of action to solve the case and this route throws him into constant danger. Sometimes I am never quite sure how he makes it out alive! He puts everything into uncovering the truth, regardless if everything also includes his own life.

Nomad’s Premonition is a well written, fast paced novel full of suspense and action. I loved how vulnerable and open our main character is and how quickly you become attached to him. It is a definite must read novel.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Georges Benay is a former international banker who is now working as a Toronto-based writer and award-winning photographer. He is the author of two novels, including The Nomad’s Premonition and a collection of short stories. His award winning pictures have been featured in several magazines and book covers.

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.