Category: book review

September 23, 2015

Inspector Dewey

Get ready to meet Dewey, Inspector Dewey.

About Inspector Dewey

My name is Dewey–Inspector Dewey.

I live in the big green house on Hampshire Avenue with my family: Thumper, Lily, and Anna. I am the Big Cat—responsible for keeping everyone safe and in order. I do this quite well, in spite of the fact that managing my family is like, well, herding cats!

Mostly our life is peaceful. But one night it wasn’t. That was the night the bad guy showed up on our block. Of course, I knew exactly how to outsmart the outlaw, but miserable mullet would Anna and the police understand my instructions?

To find out how the adventure ended, you’ll have to read my book. But I’ll give you a hint: there’s a reason I’m called Inspector Dewey.

My Thoughts

I love children’s books, I love the images, the flow and story. Inspector Dewey is no exception. From the cover alone, you can tell that this will be a book to treasure.

Our favourite reading time is just before bed time, snuggled up on the couch or under the covers in bed. Inspector Dewey has illustrations that are warm and inviting and perfect for bedtime reading. The illustrations were adorable and melt your heart. Those faces on them – too cute!

The story itself flows very nicely and is a heart warming story of how three little cats and their human, Anna, save the day and town. The cats are full of love, daring and adventure. which completes this wonderful story. This reminds every little reader, that regardless of size we can do and accomplish anything we put our minds to.

**Fifty percent of the profits from the sale of this book will fund veterinary care for pets whose families are in financial need, so that the animals can remain in their homes and out of the shelter system.**

Isn’t that incredible?

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

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Marketing Officer, Strategy Expert, Innovator and Brand Builder, Kristen’s business career spans 20+ years serving the biggest brands in industry and the biggest hearts of start-ups and entrepreneurs. Kristen revels in bringing compelling products and services to life and helping leaders and individuals with big dreams realize their big goals.

Kristen’s life joys include her 2+ year obsession creating the most beautiful self-published picture book possible, the breathtaking forests and lakes of her Minnesota birthplace, the family that really does love her no matter what, and her three magnificent Norwegian Forest Cats who together, with Kristen, helped catch the bad guy on their block that inspired her upcoming book (stake out and high-speed chase included!)

She holds a master of science in eCommerce from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, and a BA from the University of St. Thomas. As the great transformer in her life, Kristen supports others’ education and literacy as an adjunct professor of business and strategy and, more recently, through her children’s book, Inspector Dewey (Available September 2015).

Kristen’s site for her work “Inspector Dewey” will be premiering on May 31st, 2015. In addition, you can read more about Kristen’s work at threenorwegians.com, also live on May 31st.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

September 22, 2015

A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn

In A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn, a wedding brings two widows together to find love that they thought would never be theirs again.

About A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn

Emma Keim was heartbroken when her husband, Sanford, passed away, leaving her to raise three young daughters alone. Though several years have passed, her relatives have made it no secret that they expect Emma to remain a widow, mourning Sanford indefinitely. But when she meets Jay Hilty, a handsome widower with three young sons of his own. Emma is delighted to have a new friend who understands her struggles. Still, she is dismayed that her family is so opposed to their friendship and the idea of it ever becoming anything more. She honors her husband’s memory every day but is she destined to be alone forever?

Emma’s gentleness with Jay’s boys stirs something in his heart that’s been quiet for far too long. But when his oldest son becomes engaged to a local woman, suddenly Jay, Emma, and their children are swept up in wedding preparations. Witnessing his son’s joy, Jay wonders if it’s time for him to move forward, too, and find happiness again.

Once again, love has come to Pinecraft. But can these two parties of four become a happy, healthy family of eight?

My Thoughts

I love this series of books from Shelley Shepard Gray where we are introduced to new characters but our old favourite characters are intertwined in the new series and evolution of this beautiful town. In A Wedding at Orange Blossom Inn, we meet Emma who is a very young widow who at the time does not feel lonely until she meets a young man, also a widow, with young children.

This is a man who can understand her struggles, her fears and her need for friendship. He understands the way she thinks and how to talk with her. But they both fear moving forward. They fear what others will say and think. That maybe the other person may not love or be interested in them. It is a lovely story of honouring the past but moving into the future, to trust in God and the path that he has set before us.

You can purchase a copy of the book here. You can find more reviews of A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn on the Litfuse Blog tour page.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Shelley Shepard Gray is a two-time New York Times bestseller, a two-time USA Today bestseller, 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.

September 22, 2015

The Snail’s Castle by Mark Gordon

The Snail’s Castle by Mark Gordon follows the story of Jake who will do whatever it takes to win a prestigious scholarship to study at Oxford.

The Snail’s Castle by Mark Gordon

Jake Milson wants one thing and one thing only, to win the coveted and prestigious
Hollingshead Scholarship to do postgraduate work at Oxford. He intends to travel to England
with his girlfriend, Rebecca. But a problem arises. Professor Gregory Percival keeps getting in
his way. During Jake’s struggle with Percival, the lives of Jake, Rebecca, Percival and Percival’s
wife, Margaret, intertwine. The novel, with its unexpected twists, draws you into the inner lives
of its many captivating characters. It is a story of ambition, love, lust and revenge set against the
backdrop of romantic Montreal in the early 1960’s.

My Thoughts

The Snail’s Castle is an interesting, suspenseful book that I had to give my full attention to. Mark Gordon creates an interesting world of characters whose lives intersect with what started as a goal to achieve a scholarship but led to lust and revenge.

Jake is consumed by the thought of achieving the Hollingshead scholarship. So much so that he puts it above friendship, love, creativity and integrity. His goal is put above all else and it can be even frustrating to watch him put this selfish need in front of emotional needs, friendship and family. It is almost as though he lives in his own world of greed and this is the only thing that matters in the end.

The novel took an interesting twist when Jake is given a book from Percival, a book that he just can’t wrap his mind around. I found when this book is introduced I had to pay closer attention as we are given excerpts of this book and I did not want to miss anything. The Snail’s Castle is an intriguing tale of what ambition, lust and revenge can do to a person.

You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author:

Mark Gordon is a novelist and poet, born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
His published novels are The Snail’s Castle, The Kanner Aliyah and Head of the Harbour. He is
presently living in Toronto, Ontario, and teaches English to newcomers to Canada. He updates
his information regularly at www.markgordonauthor.com

His poetry has been published in numerous literary journals in the United States and Canada,
including Quiddity, Illuminations, Poet Lore, RiverSedge, The Fiddlehead, White Wall Review,
Roanoke Review, and in the anthologies Arrivals: Canadian Poetry In The Eighties, The
Northern Red Oak, and Bright Stars 5, an Organic Tanka Anthology. Online, his poetry has
appeared in Linden Avenue Literary Journal and Versewrights.

Follow the Tour!

http://www.legitlitbooks.com/search/label/Current%20Tours

September 21 – Little Dutch Bookshop
September 22 – Working Mommy Journal
September 23 – The Life of K
September 24 – Kristian Wilson, Writing
September 25 – A Read-aholic
September 28 – The Overflowing Shelf
September 29 – Seraphina’s world
September 30 – TBA
October 1 – Cupcakes and Vodka Book Blog
October 2 – All Things Character It Is

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

September 16, 2015

A Song For Bellafortuna by Vincent “Chip” LoCoco

A Song for Bellafortuna follows a young man and his desire to free his Sicillian village from the domination of one family’s long reign.

About A Song for Bellafortuna

For years, the beautiful and secluded hilltop village of Bellafortuna, Sicily, was a great producer of wine and olive oil and the entire village prospered. After the arrival of the Vasaio family, production dwindles and the villagers soon find themselves in crushing debt to the Vasaios. Only one family in the village remains outside the control of the Vasaios, but the reason haunts Antonio Sanguinetti every day of his life. Antonio is determined to erase this legacy by offering financial and emotional support to his fellow villagers. He introduces them to the choral song from Verdi’s opera, Nabucco, which becomes the rallying cry for the villagers and offers them hope for a better life.

When Antonio’s only son, Giuseppe, discovers his family’s past, he becomes determined to take on the Vasaios and remove them from power. Led by the young Giuseppe, a plan is hatched that could result in either complete freedom for the villagers or will forever solidify the Vasaios’ control.

My Thoughts

A struggle for power, fairness, equality and overcoming poverty. The beautiful village of Bellafortuna was destroyed by one family who wanted to control it all. They used their power to ‘protect’ the people from a bigger threat (the Mafia) but in turn crushed the people in debt. While the villagers were angry and knew this was wrong, they were powerless to stop it. So instead, this vicious circle continued from generation to the next.

It is one young man, Giuseppe, who is willing to lay his heart and everything on the line to protect his people. He can no longer see them suffering as it causes heartache for him to think that his family may have played a role in this.

A Song for Bellafortuna is a beautiful and touching story of hope, grace, forgiveness and strength. I love that the story centres around music because it is music that gives us hope, lifts our spirits and gives our heart freedom. A wonderful story with a truly nail biting ending. You will love it from start to finish.

You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Award winning and bestselling author, Vincent B. “Chip” LoCoco, lives in New Orleans. His first novel, Tempesta’s Dream – A Story of Love, Friendship and Opera, became an Amazon bestselling novel and was awarded the 2014 Pinnacle Achievement Award in Historical Fiction. Amazon also has named his book as a Top Rated Novel in Italian Historical Fiction.

His most recent novel, A Song for Bellafortuna, was shortlisted in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Competition. He is an estate planning attorney in New Orleans, where he lives with his wife and two children.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

September 14, 2015

The Inheritance by Marianne Perry

A family is torn through loyalties in the novel, The Inheritance.

About The Inheritance

Set during the period 1897 to 1913, the Calabria region was subject to earthquakes and tsunamis; the land harsh and poverty the norm. Superstition clashed with religion and a class system ruled the people who lived there. Calabria is the perfect backdrop for the tragedy that unfolds in The Inheritance.

Caterina is an atypical woman, and The Inheritance chronicles her life from birth to young womanhood. Born with an inheritance of loss into a society that has predetermined what she can and cannot do, she vows to live a life of her choosing. Caterina refuses to allow the limits of her gender, the constraints of her class and the demands imposed by those in power to stand in her way. Caterina remains steadfast in her commitment to become the woman she imagines. Her decisions ignite conflicts and fuel a chain of events that result in dire consequences for all whose path she crosses.

My Thoughts

Wow. My first thoughts after I finished this novel, was just wow! It was far more intense and powerful than I had ever imagined. Living in our times, it is hard to imagine the rules that were imposed on people by others who assumed control by force and violence. Women were expected to do as they were told but yet in this novel we see a young woman try to break out of this control and live life as she wants to. The repercussions of these actions are shocking and heart breaking.

Her life is intertwined with a young man who ultimately his family becomes her demise. It is her love for him that gives her strength and courage. He to is forced into the constraints and expectations of Italian men during this era, of putting family and blood first. He was always viewed as the outcast, the weak one and it is unclear as to how far he will go to either gain his Father’s acceptance or to defy him. The ending was difficult but promising at the same time. It shocked me with its probable truth and pain. It was full of raw emotions and heart ache but also hope. I definitely would love to see and find out what happens to Caterina. The Inheritance is a novel that you will definitely not want to put down until you find out what happens to our two main characters.

You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Chapters.

Rating: 5/5 +++

About the Author

Family dynamics, genealogical research to solve ancestral mysteries and international travel are Marianne Perry’s priorities. A second-generation Canadian-Italian, she is the author of The Inheritance, a historical fiction set in Calabria, Italy from 1897 to 1913 inspired by her grandmother’s early life in Calabria. With a thirty-year career in education and communications, Marianne holds a Master of Education Degree from The University of Western Ontario (Canada).

A past member of the Board of Trustees, the Canadian National Arts Centre Corporation, she has also published non-fiction genealogical articles throughout North America. As a girl, Marianne fell in love with The National Geographic Magazine and dreamt of exploring the world. With her recent visit to Antarctica, she achieved her goal of stepping foot on every continent. The mother of two grown children, Marianne and her husband live on the shores of the St. Mary’s River, which drains Lake Superior on the outskirts of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. She continues to research family history and write non-fiction genealogical articles. In addition, she is working on her second novel and planning further adventures.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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