In A Penny Lost, Penny searches for answers, she must fight to survive the tragedies of both the past and future in order to get back home.
About A Penny Lost
Penelope Grace, usually forgotten under the shadow of her twin sister’s perfection, tries her hardest to hide her freakish ability to see into anyone’s soul.
Until she senses an unusual energy like a human-shaped void in the universe. When Penny investigates the source, she gets tossed through a crack in time along with the cute boy next door. The Void follows them through history, increasing the dangers as if testing Penny. But what is it testing for? And why does it claim to know her better than even she knows herself? Even as Penny searches for answers, she must fight to survive the tragedies of both the past and future in order to get back home.
My Thoughts
This book is an exciting adventure that follows Penny as she travels back and forward in time in order to stop the mysterious Void that has taken her through a crack in time and the mysterious boy next door who was hosting the Void in his basement.
Penny is an exceptional young lady who has the ability to see into a person’s soul and see auras. Her family doesn’t believer her not even her twin sister. Penny has always felt out-of-place and forgotten especially beside her twin. When she is sucked into the Void along with her neighbour she learns that her powers become even stronger as she is able to control the Void, open doors in time and use her powers to protect herself and the boy whose name he can not remember.
This was an interesting plot that was constantly evolving and changing as the story continued on. The two young children are forced to travel back and forwards in time in order to solve the mystery of the Void, end the darkness and return them home to their own time. Every time they seem to be a step closer, the Void ensures they are a few steps behind again. You are left wondering is the Void really bad or is Penny altering time for the worse? Who is really in charge in this time travelling adventure and what is the ultimate goal? What roles do each of them play? While we receive some of the answers by the end of the book, it leaves you needing to know more especially when the Boy remembers what he had forgotten.
This book is a great read for young adults who will love the adventure and constantly evolving plot. You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 4/5
About the Author
Aspen Bassett works at a library, telling stories and suggesting books. When she’s not working, she’s usually sipping hot cocoa and wondering what would happen if she had superpowers. She’s been published in multiple anthologies including Oomph: A Little Super Goes a Long Way and Inaccurate Realities.
Aspen grew up learning about chakras and auras and the true power of imagination which slips into her writing whether she intend it to or not. In college, when she wasn’t busy working on her degree in Creative Writing, Aspen also got her certificate in Women’s Meditation (basically general energy work).
Now, she’s working toward a diploma in Integrated Healing Arts with a certificate in Hypnotherapy.
Ralphie, Always Loved is the story of the life, love, and adventures of a beloved family dog, and how he delighted and touched his family and everyone he met.
About Ralphie, Always Loved
This is the story of the life, love, and adventures of a beloved family dog, and how he delighted and touched his family and everyone he met.
Ralphie was born with a heart on his belly. He loves food, his family, his friends, his neighbors. He loves pretty much everything and everyone. And they love him back. And that’s how it is all through his life. Read the book and fall in love with him too.
Rambunctious and hyperactive, Ralphie had already been returned to the animal shelter three times, but when Andrea and her husband adopted him and gave him a loving home where he was understood, accepted, and taught, he learned fast. As Ralphie’s human family grew, so did his capacity for love and the ways he could express it. He remained a loving and beloved family member who touched the hearts of the whole neighborhood until he was ready to say goodbye at the grand-old age of sixteen. Ralphie, Always Loved will remind you of all that is good, and reaffirm your belief in love’s power to uplift and transform.
Andrea has always been an avid reader and that jumpstarted her imagination at a very early age. In fact she escaped to the Land of Make Believe more often than her mother liked.
She is a former marketing professional who is a mom to kids both with and without fur. Andrea says that it helps to have one foot planted firmly in reality while the other is foot loose and fancy free in Imagination Land. She enjoys the best of both worlds.
In 2013, Andrea and her husband started About Something Good (ASG) as a vehicle to curate, inspire and share goodness in the world. In a world where negative images flood the media, and words like “hate” get tossed around so easily, Andrea felt she needed a space that encouraged and focused on the words like “love” and the beauty that is life. Andrea is committed to finding the good in everything, and believes: that a sense of belonging to someone’s heart is what makes us feel complete, that kindness goes a long way, and that keeping your mind and heart open can help when things happen that you don’t understand.
Andrea lives in New Jersey with her husband and children. You can connect with her on her website,Twitter and Facebook.
Q: How did you come up with the character of Ralphie?
A: Ralphie is based on my real-life dog named Ralphie. He was a rescue dog, and we were his fourth and forever family. Ralphie was a character: full of life and love, and always up to something. He made us laugh and stressed us out by “exploring the neighborhood” on a regular basis. Thankfully we always found him and brought him home. He was always underfoot, demanding attention and treats and never giving up till he got some. Ralphie loved everyone he ever met. He was an amazing dog and was very, very loved.
Q: But he’s no longer with you?
A: Ralphie passed away in October 2016, from cancer. He was diagnosed at age sixteen and was unable to be treated in any of the traditional ways. He lived for three months after he was diagnosed, and those are some of my most treasured memories. I will always love my Ralphie.
Q: Why did you write a picture book?
A: Ralphie had a very animated face. It’s almost like you could tell what he was thinking by looking at him. When it came time to writing his story, it was easy for me to visualize it in picture form, and that is why a picture book made sense to me. Picture books also have a way of eliciting emotions from children and the parents who read the books to them. I think any parent who has loved and lost a dog would understand the story on a deeper level and be able to associate with the book.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for the story?
A: I always wrote little stories about Ralphie. When I had children, I told them those stories. As Ralphie got older, I felt the need to make his story official and enduring, so I decided to write an actual book. The beginning of the book was pure imagination, based on the real-life Ralphie’s actual markings. The rest of the book was based on what actually happened. The ending was shaped by the fact that Ralphie’s long life was coming to an end, and I wanted a chance for closure. Also, the way the book ends, the reader can assume that Ralphie is still with us or that he is back up with the angels, painting clouds.
Q: Would you consider yourself to be a dog person?
A: I am definitely a dog person. I have rarely if ever met a dog I didn’t like. Over the past twenty years I have been a dog mom, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Q: Rescue or buy?
A: There is no real right answer; to each his own. However, I am a proponent of rescuing. There are so many dogs abandoned in shelters around the world, not to mention strays who could enrich any home. When you rescue, you save a life; you give hope and love a chance. I would always rescue. I hope everyone who is considering getting a new puppy would consider it too.
Disclosure: This is a spotlight tour, I did not receive compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.
Lauren Carr has added a new series with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries, ICE.
About ICE
The clues for a close-to-the-heart missing person’s case heat up when Chris Matheson starts chipping away at the ice on the cold case.
When Sandy Lipton and her unborn child disappear, the court of public opinion finds young Chris Matheson guilty. Decades later, the retired FBI agent returns home to discover that the cloud of suspicion cast over him and his family has never lifted. With the help of a team of fellow retired law enforcement officers, each a specialist in their own field of investigation, Chris Matheson starts chipping away at the ice on this cold case to uncover what had happened to Sandy and her baby and the clues are getting hot.
My Thoughts
Lauren spins an amazing web of lies, murder and love that will have you on the edge of your seat.
In this story, a young woman who has a fascination with Chris Matheson states he is the Father of her unborn child. While some know the truth, before he can prove his innocence with a DNA test both Sandy and her unborn child disappear never to be heard from again. Even after years of a successful career in the FBI, a marriage that did not quite work out and being the Father of a group of smart young ladies, this incident is still hovering over him like a dark cloud.
When he returns home after the death of his wife to give his daughters some normalcy, he is drawn to a group of former law enforcement officers who have retired but still love the thrill of solving a case. This group has a wide range of shockingly amazing skills! They assist him with this cold case that as they begin to unravel the case, leaves you shocked and in horror. We follow a story of deceit, betrayal, murder and family lies. These events from the past lead into a string of current deaths in an interesting twist that constantly leaves you guessing to who is the real culprit.
I love the way Lauren spun this novel – I could not put the book down! I had to know what happened to Sandy and her unborn child and how this disappearance was tied into a string of other murders. I never saw the end coming but it was perfect and suited the novel. A definite must read novel!
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns.
Now, Lauren has added one more hit series to her list with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries. Set in the quaint West Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, Ice introduces Chris Matheson, a retired FBI agent, who joins forces with other law enforcement retirees to heat up those cold cases that keep them up at night.
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
From New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee comes a story of love, ancient secrets, and survival. Book One, The Progeny, in the House of Bathory duology.
About The Progeny
When you wake up, you remember nothing. Not your name, or where you were born, or the faces of the people you knew. Just a single warning written to yourself before you forgot it all:
“Emily, it’s me. You.
Don’t ask about the last two years… Don’t try to remember and don’t go digging. Your life depends on it. Other lives depend on it.
By the way, Emily isn’t your real name. You died in an accident. You paid extra for that.”
You start over in a remote place with a new name, a fresh life. Until the day a stranger tells you you’re being hunted for the sins of a royal ancestor who died centuries before you were born.
You don’t believe him, until they come for you. Now you’re on the run.
Every answer you need lies in a past you chose to erase. The only thing you know for sure is that others are about to die and you need those memories back.
No one speaks when you enter the Center for the last time. There’s no need. You’ve gone through the counseling, tests, and a checklist of preparations to get the plastic bracelet you wear the day of treatment. The one that saves a life. They don’t need to know why you’re doing it any more. Or that you lied about it all. Just the scratch of the stylus as you sign your name on the screen one last time.
A nurse takes me into a room and I lie down on the table. I give her the sealed packet—the only thing I brought with me. There’s cash, meds, and an address inside, the one for “after.” It’s a thousand miles away. She’ll pass it to the companion assigned to me. No point meeting her now.
I’m 21 years old and my name doesn’t matter because it’s about to be erased forever. I’m choosing to forget the ones I love, and myself, in the process.
They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. But they don’t tell you that every detail comes screaming back to life. That you taste each bite of every meal you savored, feel the shower of every rain you walked in… smell the hair against your cheek before that last, parting kiss. That you will fight to hold on to every memory like a drowning person gasping for poisoned air.
Then everything you knew is gone. And you are still alive.
Tosca Lee is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the House of Bathory Duology (The Progeny and Firstborn, currently in development for television), Iscariot, The Legend of Sheba, Demon: A Memoir, Havah: The Story of Eve, and the Books of Mortals series with New York Times bestseller Ted Dekker (Forbidden, Mortal, Sovereign). A notorious night-owl, she loves watching TV, eating bacon, playing video games and football with her kids, and sending cheesy texts to her husband.
You can find Tosca at ToscaLee.com, on social media, or hanging around the snack table. (And be sure to check out Ismeni, the free e-short prequel to The Legend of Sheba!).
Get your copy of The Progeny here: http://toscalee.com/product/the-progeny/ (Kindle readers: now you can enjoy special insights in the author’s highlighted comments!)
From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream vividly recounts the journey of an African-American woman from rural, segregated Mississippi through academia, corporate America, and politics. It is the story of how she triumphed even when, more often than not, the ugly realities of racism and sexism tried to deter her.
About From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream
From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream vividly recounts the journey of an African-American woman from rural, segregated Mississippi through academia, corporate America, and politics. It is the story of how she triumphed even when, more often than not, the ugly realities of racism and sexism tried to deter her.
This book tells the broader story, too, of how her life epitomizes what the Civil Rights Act and Equal Rights Amendment have meant and have not meant for blacks and women as she has lived through their maturation during the last 50 years. What better time than now to examine how these two seminal and defining events played out in the life of an ordinary African-American woman who believed in all of America s promises?
What better moment than today to look deeply at the life of a woman who prepared herself and worked tirelessly to achieve her goals only to realize that many lay beyond her reach and that of most women and most blacks. From Liberty to Magnolia shows readers, especially aspiring women and minorities with whom her story will have special resonance how to navigate and ultimately embrace the challenges at every major crossroads and be triumphant.
A Discussion Guide is included for use by book clubs, classes, and group discussions.
My Thoughts
This is an incredible, powerful and moving book written by an inspiring woman. Dr. Ellis has a powerful way with words that draws you into her story, her life, her hopes and her fears. You can’t stop reading her story as she is so many of us. She is honest and her story is raw and heartfelt. She shares many intimate details that must have been hard for her but it empowers women to speak up and out against the same treatment towards themselves.
As a woman, you can connect immediately with her story. We are constantly struggling to make it in the world, always giving more of ourselves and pushing ourselves harder than our male counterparts to prove our worth. You may have felt gender discrimination yourself at some point in your life or you may have felt gender stereotyping. I know for myself having someone tell me what a woman should do or behave like, instantly makes me want to prove them wrong and I have had this instinct in me since a child. She shares so many intimate details from her life, from domestic abuse to emotional abuse in postgraduate education.
She shares an honest and open view of growing up black. Reading her story of being black, the treatment she received (and her family and those around her) is eye opening and shocking. We are talking the 60s, 70s, 80s and more recently. We clearly as a human race have a long way to go in acceptance and understanding. Even though she was treated unfairly many times due to her race and gender, she never let this turn to hate. She could have harboured a lot of anger but instead she fought to change perceptions and build understanding.
From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream is a powerful and honest book that empowers and builds understanding. You can find yourselves in many moments of Dr. Ellis’ life and when things feel hopeless she gives you courage. This book should be a mandatory read for all young adults (and adults).
Janice Ellis, Ph.D, has been an executive throughout her career, first in government, then in a large pharmaceutical company, later as President and CEO of her own marketing firm, and finally as President and CEO of a bi-state non-profit child advocacy agency. Along with those positions, she has been writing columns for four decades on race, politics, education, and other social issues. They have appeared in a major metropolitan daily newspaper, The Kansas City Star; a major metropolitan business journal, The Milwaukee Business Journal; and for community newspapers The Milwaukee Courier, The Kansas City Globe, and The Kansas City Call. She began her career writing and delivering radio commentary for two years for one of the largest ABC radio affiliates in Wisconsin. Later in her career she wrote and delivered a two-minute spot on the two largest Arbitron-rated radio stations in the Greater Kansas City area. She has also written for several national trade publications, focusing on healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Ellis published an online magazine, USAonRace.com, for seven years dedicated to increasing understanding across race and ethnicity, in which she analyzed race and equality issues in America. The website continues to attract thousands of visitors per year. The site also has a vibrant Facebook page with fans numbering in the thousands. Five years ago, Dr. Ellis launched a companion site, RaceReport.com, which aggregates news about race relations, racism, and discrimination from across the United States and around the world daily. Dr. Ellis also has her own website, JaniceSEllis.com, which houses a collection of her writings and where she continues to write about race inequality, gender inequality, politics, education, and other issues related to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Janice Ellis, a native daughter of Mississippi, grew up and came of age during the height of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Born and reared on a small cotton farm, she was influenced by two converging forces that would set the course of her life. The first was the fear and terror felt by blacks because of their seeking to exercise the right to vote along with other rights and privileges afforded to whites. The second was her love of books, the power of words, and her exposure to renowned columnists, Eric Sevareid and Walter Lippmann, whose work solidified her belief that the wise use of words is what advances the good society.
Janice Ellis became determined to take a stand, and not accept and allow the conditions of that farm life, or the strictures of oppressive racial segregation and entrenched sexism limit what she could become. She became determined to use whatever talents God had blessed her with and the power of words to help improve the human condition. FROM LIBERTY TO MAGNOLIA is her first book.
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