Category: books

February 5, 2014

The Smitten Book Club: Love and Friendship #Review

In the collaborative novel, The Smitten Book Club, authors and best friends Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter and Diann Hunt intertwine the Gentlewoman’s Guide into the personal life of each Smitten town book club member.

Do you love a story based on friendship and the power of its healing? Then The Smitten Book Club is the perfect read just for you!

Molly, Lia, Heather and Abby are the main characters in the Smitten Book Club. They organize the book club in the town of Smitten as well as being the best of friends who would do anything for each other. When Heather finds the Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship she can not resist bringing the book home with her. Not only did the title of the book call out to her but the book was written by a Smitten native, Pearl Chambers (a relative of Molly’s husband).

Heather and her fellow book club members pass the book along and each interprets the book in a fashion that is true to their personality. The members each meet with romance and the Guide proves to be both helpful and completely irrelevant at the exact same time. Not only does the Guide offer advice on love it also contains a town mystery to a secret gold mine! This secret could help Molly financially and each one of the girls is determined to help solve this mystery.

I love that this book was written by four best friends. Reading through the novel you can sense this friendship and I felt like I part of the friendship of the Smitten Book Club. The power of friendships is so important to our personal well being and an essential part when we are hurting – our friends know the perfect words and actions to make so much of that hurt go away. I loved how each character’s story was so intertwined that you did not feel like each story stopped but that it was a continuation from the previous story. It allowed a greater insight into each character’s personality and inner feelings. The Smitten Book Club was the perfect book to cuddle up with and laugh and cry along with. It is a fantastic novel to share with your own girlfriends, your sister and mother. It is a novel that I have recommended to all my coworkers as well.

Rating: 5/5

Want to find out more about this book and read other reviews? Check out the Litfuse Blog tour here. If you would like to purchase a copy you can do so here.

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

December 18, 2013

A Gift for Sophie Review & Giveaway US/CAN

Story time is a very special time in our house. It is the time of day where we can relax in bed, cuddle up with a blanket and catch up on some quality time with a good book. We love stories that carry a strong meaning for our children, stories they can cherish and learn from.

A Gift for Sophie written by Gilles Vigneault follows the life of Sophie a seven year old girl and her friendships with Old Man Tom and Emilio. We watch as Sophie grows and learns about loss and friendship. A Gift for Sophie is a powerful reminder of the connections we have with our loved ones and help children understand that we are always there for them whether in spirit or presence.

This beautifully written story also comes with a CD that contains both a narration of the story and nine heart warming songs that your whole family will love. The CD really helps bring the story to life. If you are more of a digital person and love reading stories on an app with your children you can download it on the iTunes store for only $7.99. These enhanced e-books offer a complete narration of the story with animation and two recorded songs.

My favourite features of A Gift for Sophie:

– An incredibly powerful and poetic story with an important message for our children. Makes the perfect bedtime story!
-The addition of the CD with a narration and songs (as well as the lyrics to sing along with!).
-An enhanced e-book for those who prefer to download e-books.
-Story is the perfect length – enough to create an interesting story line and to keep a child’s attention.
-The illustrations are beautiful! The illustrations are by Stéphane Jorisch (also a four time winner of the Governor General’s Literacy Award.
-The book is completely Canadian – writer by a Canadian author (Gilles Vigneault), illustrated by a Canadian illustrator (Stéphane Jorisch) and published by a great Canadian publisher – Secret Mountain!

If you are not familiar with the Secret Mountain, they are a Canadian publisher based out of Montreal. They are renowned internationally as a publisher of children’s books and music. They have a large volume of work that you can browse through on their website.

The Secret Mountain is offering one reader a chance to win their own copy of A Gift for Sophie! This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada so feel free to share with all your fellow parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents! Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for the purpose to review. All opinions expressed are my own.

November 26, 2013

Datevitation: Keeping Relationships Fun! #Review #Giveaway

Date nights? Some days I feel like what is that???

It is so hard with children to keep date ideas fun and exciting. Date nights become non existent at times and we both hate that. It is so important for us to keep our relationship strong, not only for ourselves but also for our children. Coming up with fun and new date ideas can be so hard! I like to be creative with my husband and surprise him with something new and different.

Have you ever made homemade date night coupons?

Several times I have made my own “coupons” for date ideas to give to my husband on special occasions. They can be fun, exciting, different or romantic but any way you look at it, the date coupons add that extra element of excitement to date night!

Datevitation is the first online platform to create your very own personalized love coupon book. No more pre-packaged, generic love coupon books. Datevitation allows you to fully customize the dates, text and design. You can choose from over 500 date ideas!! There are so many date night ideas ranging from a walk, picnic, restaurant to skydiving – I had so much fun choosing the date options for our special book.

One of the neatest parts of this site is that you can even insert your own faces into the coupon book. I had so much fun at this part – you add in the face of your recipient (in this case my husband) and choose their hair style and colour. There was definitely a great variety of hair styles to play around! This was the perfect way to personalize our love coupon book just for us and add a little more excitement to date night.

The date ideas are not just limited to couples though. As many parents have experienced (and we found out quickly with the birth of our second son) it is so important to schedule regular “date” nights with your children for quality one on one time. They don’t have to be expensive date ideas but as simple as baking together or going to play at the park together. These moments are so important in all the chaos that is life – a great way to catch up on all the things that are going on in your child’s life.

Datevitation was created by the husband-wife team of Alex and Olga Karpman. They have a great blog where you can get to know more about them, go through great date ideas and ideas to keep romancing blooming. I loved their post on how to create a gourmet meal for your significant other when you can not cook, check it out here.

What I loved about Datevitation:

the website itself was clear to read, everything visible
account set up was simple and quick
creating the love coupons was quick and painless – it was easy for me to use and no mistakes made!
with over 500+ date ideas you can’t go wrong!
adds that extra element of fun and excitement into a relationship
they make the perfect personalized gift, it gives your gift that special touch

Datevitation is not only offering a fabulous giveaway for you but they are also offering all my readers a great discount on their coupon books. Right now use the code: WORKINGMOMMY to receive $10 off your order and free shipping. These make perfect gifts for Christmas so make sure to get that order in before December 13th, 2013 to ensure delivery – I can not wait to see my husband’s face when he opens his!

Enter now to win your own love coupon book! This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada, 18 years of age and older.

GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received the product mentioned above for the purpose to review. All opinions expressed are my own.

November 2, 2013

12 Days of Christmas! #review #giveaway

Christmas is a special time in our family. Christmas is a time for us as individuals to reflect on our lives, our faith and our loved ones. It is a time to give thanks for all the blessings that we have in our lives, big or small. A time to reflect on our actions and our future – where we have come from and where we want to go.

I was blessed to usher in the Christmas spirit by participating in The 12 Days of Christmas Book Tour through Litfuse Publicity. They have rounded up four fantastic books that will warm your hearts, give thanks for your life and encourage you to continue to grow in spirit and mind.

Plain Peace is written by Beth Wiseman and is the story of Anna Byler. Anna is a young Amish woman who is entering her Rumspringa (a time in the life of a young Amish individual that they are given to explore their youth, the outside world and ends when they chose to be baptised into the community). Anna’s Grandfather is the Bishop of their community and enforces strict rules upon the community. She meets a young man named, Jacob, who is recovering from his own troubled family history and is drawn to him.

Plain Peace is an extraordinary story of self discovery and personal strength. We see our main characters grow in strength and wisdom throughout the book as they struggle through personal tragedies. It reminds us of forgiveness and change that every individual is capable of. I fell in love with the spirit of Anna on her road to self discovery. You can purchase the book here.

Rating: 5/5

A Christmas Gift for Rose is written by Tricia Goyer and is based on a true story. Our main character, Rose, was born during the worst of the Great Depression and was raised in an Amish family. She discovers that she was actually born into an Englisch family but was abandoned by her family due to the poverty of the Great Depression. She suffers through self doubt on her road to discovery.

A Christmas Gift for Rose is a heart warming book that is hard to put down. It teaches us about true sacrifice, love and self strength. It forces us to look at ourselves and realize that family are the ones who love and nurture us. Rose’s strength through such a difficult time in her life teaches us about sacrifice and true love.You can purchase this novel here.

Rating: 5/5

Silent Night is written by Colleen Coble and centres around the life of Bree Matthews. Bree has a career in the field of search and rescue. As she prepares for the Christmas season alongside her husband, we find that she has been suffering from the pain of miscarriage. Her sister in law arrives and seems to have more information on a missing person case than Bree feels comfortable with. We follow Bree on this case and her road to fulfilling her dream of having a baby.

Silent Night touched me in so many ways. Having suffered miscarriages in the past before myself, the pain of this runs deep. Holidays tend to force the pain to the surface. Through out the book we are reminded of how to make peace with this pain and move forward. You can purchase a copy of this book here.

Rating: 5/5

Holy Night is also written by Colleen Coble and is based around the lives of Leia and Bane. They are planning their wedding in the beauty of Hawaii when their whole lives are turned upside down with one phone call. Leia’s sister, who suffers from Down Syndrome, has been kidnapped and has ordered her to call off the wedding. Leia is forced to secrecy or her sister would be murdered.

The issue of trust is played up through out the whole of Holy Night. Trust is essential in every relationship, either in a marriage or in families. You can purchase a copy of this book here.

Rating: 4.5/5

Do you want to know more about these books and authors? You can find more reviews and information about these books here.

Thomas Nelson & Zondervan Fiction are hosting the 12 Days of Christmas! They’ve teamed up with three of their authors for a Merry Facebook Party on November 12th {5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern}. Colleen, Tricia, and Beth will host an evening of book chat, Christmas traditions, and of course plenty of presents!

But wait! There’s more! Each day between now and November 12th a different book (10 copies of each book) will be given away on the Thomas Nelson & Zondervan Fiction Facebook Page. Ring in the holiday season and warm your heart with some great reads from Thomas Nelson and Zondervan!

Click here to ENTER each day’s giveaway here. RSVP for the Christmas Party here!

Good luck and hope to see you on the evening of the 12th!

Disclosure: I received a copy of each of these books for the purpose to review them. The opinions expressed are my own.