The Awful Mess by Sandra Hutchison - I loved this book! Couldn't put it down!!

I loved this book. I really enjoyed the characters in this book. I had to carry it around with me as I couldn't put it down and had to sneak a few pages in where ever I could. I haven't had a book hook me like this one in quite a while.  I highly recommend this book to everyone!

I got the book as a free one from Shelf Awareness I believe.  I liked the other book by this author that she said she had a copy of her first book around her home and she went ahead and sent it to me. She knew I would give an honest review!  Also the book would end up at a  small library in Linden Iowa where my Mom donates her spare time.

Here is the descriptions as found here on Good Reads: In this witty and suspenseful update of The Scarlet Letter, self-proclaimed "heathen" Mary Bellamy arrives in a small town and quickly gets caught up in the lives of an unhappily-married Episcopal priest and a handsome town cop. Soon she's facing a crushing job loss, a scandalous pregnancy, a painful secret, and a dangerous ex. Can Mary arrive at any kind of redemption ... or is this awful mess her last?

The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire by Sandra Hutchison - 5 Stars!

I really didn't know what to expect when I cracked this book open. Obviously the title gives a small hint that this book won't be a light chick read.

David the local physics professor survives a plane crash but loses his wife and daughter, he can't remember anything of the actual crash which is really disturbing to him.  He just wants to end his life and soon.

His sister hires Molly (who used to baby sit his daughter Emily) to make sure the casseroles left at the door are heated and that David eats and takes his medications. Molly is pretty wise beyond her years and she suffers being made fun of by the local kids because of her Mothers weird art projects which are displayed locally when they are finished.  Molly just wants to get away!  She does go to her Fathers part of the time but his new wife and daughters don't treat her very well there either.

She is most comfortable when she is with David which she finds kind of confusing.  David is very attached to her also which he knows there is nothing he can do with that!  She is way to young.....

Molly does have to deal David's depression and she really doesn't know what do do about that. She is so attached to David, the locals all come to assume what is going on with Molly and David.  

I don't want to go too much into the story and ruin the middle and the ending of the book for you.  This is a great read and the book is engrossing and very real, all of what happens to Molly, David, her Mother are all things that could happen in any small town.  The talk alone is something that could happen in any town.

I received this book through Shelf Awareness in exchange for my honest review. I really didn't know what to expect when I cracked this book open. Obviously the title gives a small hint that this book won't be a light chick read.

David the local physics professor survives a plane crash but loses his wife and daughter, he can't remember anything of the actual crash which is really disturbing to him.  He just wants to end his life and soon.

His sister hires Molly (who used to baby sit his daughter Emily) to make sure the casseroles left at the door are heated and that David eats and takes his medications. Molly is pretty wise beyond her years and she suffers being made fun of by the local kids because of her Mothers weird art projects which are displayed locally when they are finished.  Molly just wants to get away!  She does go to her Fathers part of the time but his new wife and daughters don't treat her very well there either.

She is most comfortable when she is with David which she finds kind of confusing.  David is very attached to her also which he knows there is nothing he can do with that!  She is way to young.....

Molly does have to deal David's depression and she really doesn't know what do do about that. She is so attached to David, the locals all come to assume what is going on with Molly and David.  

I don't want to go too much into the story and ruin the middle and the ending of the book for you.  This is a great read and the book is engrossing and very real, all of what happens to Molly, David, her Mother are all things that could happen in any small town.  The talk alone is something that could happen in any town.

I received this book through Shelf Awareness in exchange for my honest review. 

As found on Good Reads: It’s the summer of 1977 in a small town in Western Massachusetts. Physics professor David Asken has just lost his young family in a plane crash he somehow survived. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael used to be the babysitter, but now will be keeping house for him while he recuperates. He’s quietly planning to end his life just as soon as he can drive again, but may not be willing to wait that long after he comes across his dead wife’s journal and encounters more hostility than he had ever imagined. Molly is trying to cope with being known as Tampon Girl, thanks to a sculpture by her notorious artist mother, but she will have to deal with much worse than that after a drunken teenage party.
Both man and girl are going to have to grow up the hard way, and it’s their unexpected connection — fraught with potential scandal — that may just help them do it. This provocative coming-of-age novel asks: Is there ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right?
This is the second book from Sandra Hutchison's, whose debut novel THE AWFUL MESS: A LOVE STORY, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist, has been downloaded by over 55,000 readers

As found on Good Reads: It’s the summer of 1977 in a small town in Western Massachusetts. Physics professor David Asken has just lost his young family in a plane crash he somehow survived. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael used to be the babysitter, but now will be keeping house for him while he recuperates. He’s quietly planning to end his life just as soon as he can drive again, but may not be willing to wait that long after he comes across his dead wife’s journal and encounters more hostility than he had ever imagined. Molly is trying to cope with being known as Tampon Girl, thanks to a sculpture by her notorious artist mother, but she will have to deal with much worse than that after a drunken teenage party.
Both man and girl are going to have to grow up the hard way, and it’s their unexpected connection — fraught with potential scandal — that may just help them do it. This provocative coming-of-age novel asks: Is there ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right?
This is the second book from Sandra Hutchison's, whose debut novel THE AWFUL MESS: A LOVE STORY, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist, has been downloaded by over 55,000 readers

Against The Grain A Gluten Free CookBook written by Nancy Cain

Against The Grain

EXEXTRAORDINARY GLUTEN-FREE RECIPES MADE FROM REAL, ALL-NATURAL INGREDIENTS

By NANCY CAIN
I was excited to get the first book, cook book, since I had been told I was allergic to most of the grains.  I don’t have celiac disease.  Unfortunately the book was geared toward the celiac disease person and didn't give a lot of information when it came to those who were allergic to Buckwheat flour, wheat, rye, pumpernickel, barley oat, eggs, dairy, yeast etc.I didn't find anything in the book that I wanted to make and I did spend a lot of time looking through it. 

 It is very well written if you are a person with celiac disease  The photographs are really well done!  I would give the book four stars as it is well written for the market she geared the book to. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

ABOUT AGAINST THE GRAIN

Revolutionary all-natural recipes for gluten-free cooking–from the owner of Against the Grain Gourmet.

Nancy Cain came to gluten-free cooking simply enough: Her teenage son was diagnosed with celiac disease. After trying ready-made baking mixes and finding the results rubbery and tasteless, she pioneered gluten-free foods made entirely from natural ingredients–no xanthan or guar gums or other mystery chemical additives allowed. That led her to adapt many of her family’s favorite recipes, including their beloved pizzas, pastas, and more, to this real food technique. InAgainst the Grain, Nancy finally shares 200 groundbreaking recipes for achieving airy, crisp breads, delicious baked goods, and gluten-free main dishes.
     For any of these cookies, cakes, pies, sandwiches, and casseroles, you use only natural ingredients such as buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, and ripe fruits and vegetables. Whether you’re making Potato Rosemary Bread, iced Red Velvet Cupcakes, Lemon-Thyme-Summer Squash Ravioli, or Rainbow Chard and Kalamata Olive Pizza, you’ll be able to use ingredients already in your pantry or easily found at your local supermarket.
     With ample information for gluten-free beginners and 100 colorful photographs, this book is a game changer for gluten-free households everywhere.

ABOUT NANCY CAIN 

NANCY CAIN is the owner of Against the Grain Gourmet, a line of gluten-free breads and pizzas available at supermarkets and natural food stores nationwide. She lives with her gluten-free family in Vermont.

Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist a fabulous read!

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.  I loved this book by Deeanne Gist!  I haven't read the other books that she has  written in the era of the Chicago's World Fair, I'll have to rectify that soon.

Everyone has written their reviews and their favorite parts of the book the review crew have all done a fine job.

I want to address the part that Deeanne has changed publishers, and she has decided not to write for the inspirational crowd anymore she believes that God has led her to start writing for the rest of  the crowd.  She can then tell stories that lead young girls/women to believe there are good men out there, men who will treat them well and love them they way they are supposed to be loved.

Even if the men aren't involved with the church, there are still men out there who are good men loving faithful men who will make a good life with them. I could tell by the video that she didn't make this change easily but felt she needed to make this switch.

She asked who our favorite characters were and I would have to say that Flossie's love interest Reeve was my favorite, he was so driven to show her what type of guy he was and what type of world he would open up for her after he was ready to show her. He worked a long time before even seeing her after he left the boarding house.  The book was fabulous a one day read for me I couldn't put it down!

The description of this book as found here on Amazon is: From the bestselling author of It Happened at the Fair and Fair Play comes a compelling historical novel about a progressive “New Woman”—the girl behind Tiffany’s chapel—and the love that threatens it all.

As preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair set Chicago and the nation on fire, Louis Tiffany—heir to the exclusive Fifth Avenue jewelry empire—seizes the opportunity to unveil his state-of-the-art, stained glass, mosaic chapel, the likes of which the world has never seen.

But when Louis’s dream is threatened by a glassworkers’ strike months before the Fair opens, he turns to an unforeseen source for help: the female students at the Art Students League of New York. Eager for adventure, the young women pick up their skirts, move to boarding houses, take up steel cutters, and assume new identities as the “Tiffany Girls.”

Tiffany Girl is the heartwarming story of the impetuous Flossie Jayne, a beautiful, budding artist who is handpicked by Louis to help complete the Tiffany chapel. Though excited to live in a

boarding house when most women stayed home, she quickly finds the world is less welcoming than anticipated. From a Casanova male, to an unconventional married couple, and a condescending singing master, she takes on a colorful cast of characters to transform the boarding house into a home while racing to complete the Tiffany chapel and make a name for herself in the art world.

As challenges mount, her ambitions become threatened from an unexpected quarter: her own heart. Who will claim victory? Her dreams or the captivating boarder next door?

The Wood's Edge A Novel by Lori Benton - My Review - 4 Stars!!

The Wood’s Edge
A Novel
By Lori Benton

I loved this book!  It was a very interesting read.  It was written during the time when the United States as we know them do not exist.  The colonist’s had come and taken over land in the name of the Crown.  The Indians in the area agreed to stay in their areas and colonists were to stay in theirs. It didn’t last long though, the Indians were not happy as the colonists were hunting and making their hunting land non-existent when it came to game to be found for them to feed their family’s.  During one fracas at the downfall of the Fort William Henry one Major Reginald Aubrey’s wife had just delivered a son, unknown to her the son was dead.  There was a woman in the Fort who had just delivered twin boys.  The Major didn’t think twice about it as the woman lay sleeping she had two boys one looked white like her and the other looked like his Indian Father.  The Major took his dead son and put it in the place of the white baby.  He found that it was more than he can live with the rest of his life.  He also found a little girl left in a wagon her family gone, but she was alive.  He named her Anna and took her home with him.  His wife never found out what he did so that she would have a live son when she awoke. 

The Indian woman knew what happened to her second son, and she sends her son to spy on the Aubrey land to find out what is happening with her other son.  Her husband wants his son back.  They go to the edge of the woods only to have Anna find them there. They don’t tell her why they are there. They find out from Anna that the son known as “William” has gone away to school in England.

Their son travels many times to the edge of the woods to meet with Anna to hear how William is faring in England and he tries to find out when William is expected home.  He never tells Anna his real reason for visiting. Eventually he is visiting to find information on William but also because he is interested in her. They fall in love and telling her Father, seems like an impossible task. 

During the time William is gone; Anna has been learning the trade of midwifery and healing with herbs which I find fascinating in and of it. 

There is of course a huge blow out when Two Hawks parents wish to speak to the Major in regard to their missing son and eventually Two Hawks must speak to Major Aubrey of his love of his daughter Anna.  They want to be together.  That was just not done during those days.  I had to keep reading I wanted to find out what happened to Anna, Two Hawks, William and Major Aubrey.

I give this book four stars.  The history of the area and what was happening during that time period was studied by the author.  She took pains to make sure the book was true to many aspects of the history of the time. I love to read about the authors and what drives them to write the books they write.  It is always interesting.

 "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

More About The Book:

At the wood’s edge cultures collide. Can two families survive the impact? 

The 1757 New York frontier is home to the Oneida tribe and to British colonists, yet their feet rarely walk the same paths. 

On the day Fort William Henry falls, Major Reginald Aubrey is beside himself with grief. His son, born that day, has died in the arms of his sleeping wife. When Reginald comes across an Oneida mother with newborn twins, one white, one brown, he makes a choice that will haunt the lives of all involved. He steals the white baby and leaves his own child behind. Reginald’s wife and foundling daughter, Anna, never suspect the truth about the boy they call William, but Reginald is wracked by regret that only intensifies with time, as his secret spreads its devastating ripples. 

When the long buried truth comes to light, can an unlikely friendship forged at the wood’s edge provide a way forward? For a father tormented by fear of judgment, another by lust for vengeance. For a mother still grieving her lost child. For a brother who feels his twin’s absence, another unaware of his twin’s existence. And for Anna, who loves them both—Two Hawks, the mysterious Oneida boy she meets in secret, and William, her brother. As paths long divided collide, how will God direct the feet of those who follow Him?

More About The Author: Lori Benton was raised east of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by early American history going back three hundred years. Her novels transport readers to the eighteenth century, where she brings to life the Colonial and early Federal periods of American history. When she isn’t writing, reading, or researching, Lori enjoys exploring the Oregon wilderness with her husband. She is the author of Burning Sky, recipient of three Christy Awards, and The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn.

My Review of: A Fifty-Year Silence, Love War and a Ruined House In France - by Miranda Richmond Mouillot - I gave this book three stars.

My Review:  Miranda Richmond Mouillot takes on the task of trying to put together her Grandparents lives, Armaund and Anna who married during WWII, bought a house, escaped from refugee camps in Switzerland, had two children and then split up.  Something happened while they were living she as a physician and he as an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials.  She left him with their two children and they never spoke or saw each other again for the next fifty years.  Her Grandfather won’t’ even speak his wife’s name.  Miranda moves into the stone house that is their property although they never lived there in the south of France.  Miranda spend her time researching every letter, every journal everything she can get her hands on that happened during the time they were married, she writes letters to her Grandmother who will answer some questions, she asks her Grandfather questions and he is suffering from some onset of Alzheimer’s and will some of the time share tales of their marriage and what happened during the war and afterward.  Some of the time he will not give her answers he just asks, what did your Grandmother said happened.  I usually love books based on this time frame, based on what happened to many of the people who went through WWII.  I didn’t like this book, I kept reading hoping to like the characters, I didn’t, hoping to find that Miranda had finally found information that would lead to something of an interesting story the further I got into the book the further I hated the time it was taking her to find information.  There were many times there were phrases in French, I didn’t understand them and there was no footnotes to explain, much of the time she would research only to come to dead ends.  The book really wasn’t interesting to me until three quarters into the book.  I really wanted to like this book and I just didn’t like the process of her personal search.  This book was probably really interesting to family and friends who read the book who knew the family; I don’t believe this was the book for me.  I’m really sorry it just seemed a bit dry and I found myself stumbling through this book finding interest three quarters into the book when they started finally to really get and share answers and also to describe more about what was going on with the Nuremberg trials and its effect on Miranda’s Grandfather, and others who lived through them. "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

More About The Book:

A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents' mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences

In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, the author's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. Aside from one brief encounter, the two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.

A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him.  To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents.  As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory.  She also finds herself learning how not only to survive but to thrive – making a home in the village and falling in love.

With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents' outsize characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.

More About The Author:

Photo © Tristan Zilberman

Miranda Richmond Mouillot was born in Asheville, North Carolina. She lives in the South of France with her husband, daughter, and cat.

My Review of "It Was Me All Along" by Andie Mitchell - I give this book 4 Stars -

It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell

I very much was able to understand the character Andie Mitchell and her relationship with food and the things that happened during her life that would set off her eating/binging.  I have had smaller weight issues but have found that I will eat to stay awake to watch a program will eat when I’m angry, will take two of anything when one was sufficient.  I went on weight watchers twice so far in my life, which is not so much like that which Andie went through but I was able to look at her life and see some similarities.  The story gave me some tips on how to stop some of my eating issues and I plan to put them in place. 

Andie ballooned up to 268 pounds by the time she was twenty. When Andie went to Rome she found a way of eating that changed her life.  Setting aside time and enjoying every bite in modest sized bowls of pasta etc.  She lost weight during the time she in Rome without even trying it just went away.  She found that the man she had loved for so many years who wanted to marry her, who also had weight issues which never bothered her before, now she knew she couldn’t marry him and she knew she no longer loved him.  She set out into a lifetime of changes and in the end the best change was in how she felt about herself.  She found that she loved her self all parts of herself and that was the best change of all!

“I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

More About The Book:
A heartbreakingly honest, endearing memoir of incredible weight loss by a young food blogger who battles body image issues and overcomes food addiction to find self-acceptance.
 
All her life, Andie Mitchell had eaten lustily and mindlessly. Food was her babysitter, her best friend, her confidant, and it provided a refuge from her fractured family. But when she stepped on the scale on her twentieth birthday and it registered a shocking 268 pounds, she knew she had to change the way she thought about food and herself; that her life was at stake.. 

It Was Me All Along takes Andie from working class Boston to the romantic streets of Rome, from morbidly obese to half her size, from seeking comfort in anything that came cream-filled and two-to-a-pack to finding balance in exquisite (but modest) bowls of handmade pasta. This story is about much more than a woman who loves food and abhors her body. It is about someone who made changes when her situation seemed too far gone and how she discovered balance in an off-kilter world. More than anything, though, it is the story of her finding beauty in acceptance and learning to love all parts of herself.

More About The Author: 
ANDIE MITCHELL is a writer, recipe developer, and lover of cake. Her popular blog, CanYouStayForDinner.com, shares the inspiring story of her successful weight loss and continued passion for good food. She lives in New York City, where she is the social media director for ShriverReport.org. 

 

Hope Crossing: The Complete Ada's House Trilogy, includes The Hope of Refuge, The Bridge of Peace, and The Harvest of Grace / My Review / Five Stars on this one!!

Hope Crossing: The Complete Ada's House Trilogy, includes The Hope of Refuge, The Bridge of Peace, and The Harvest of Grace

 My review: I've probably read Cynthia Woodsmall's stories at one time or another although I don't remnember doing so.  From the time I opened the first book in this trilogy of three books in ome, I couldn't seem to put the book down.  I love to read about the Amish I find their way of life fascinating.  There are many Amish who live in the same town as my Grandmother and when there I see them with their horse and buggies coming and going quite often.

Cynthia Woodsmalls' books gave me another glimpse into their lives.  The book wasn't something I could put down easily.  I found myself picking it up for a few pages to read before bedtime and then putting off going to bed or doing whatever else I should have been doing and instead reading.  

She takes you into her books and involves you right into the stories.  You feel as if you know the characters, or at least want to know as much as you can about them, their lives and you want to keep reading to find out how she is going to end each story, and in this case, you don't have to end it, as their are three books and you can get started right where the last one ended.

 Only from the beginning of each book, other characters in the same towns paths crossing each other so you feel as though you are reading on about old friends as each book unfolds to the next.  The books are rich in the characters faiths, as well as their doubts with their faith in some cases and the problems their lives cross over, problems that happen to the non-Amish  as well so that makes these characters seem even more believeable.  I do wish I had as much faith and could remain as steadfast in my faith of what is to come as they are.  I think at times by reading books such as these, their doubts and challenges and the solutions that come their way help me in some small way as I enjoy their stories.

Warning, if you are a person who has problems holding on to books of great weight, this book is pretty heavy.  I found that I would be sitting at my table reading there or in bed anywhere that I could prop the book open to keep reading.  I should have chosen to read the kindle version as this is pretty hard on the hands and wrists for someone with arthritis problems.

I received a copy of this book from “Blogging For Books” in exchange for a fair review.

More About The Book: 

Hope Crossing: The Complete Ada's House Trilogy, includes The Hope of Refuge, The Bridge of Peace, and The Harvest of Grace
by Cindy Woodsmall (Goodreads Author)
Hope Crossing…where Ada’s House stands as a haven for weary souls looking for kindness, faith, and second chances.

The Hope of Refuge:

Two very different women are pulled by their strongest desires. Deborah Mast joined the Amish church and longs to marry her fiancé, but he is changing. Cara Moore is forced to look into a life that was meant to be hers. Will Ada’s House help them realize their hearts’ desires or will it force them to accept what life has done to each of them?

The Bridge of Peace:

Living out her passion for teaching, Lena Kauffman’s work is suddenly interrupted by a series of pranks and accidents targeted toward her and her students. When tragedy strikes her dear friend Grey Graber’s family on school property, the school board begins to blame her for the trouble. As grief and confusion take their toll on Grey and Lena’s friendship, they are both forced to face a new reality that may offer the peace and love they each long for.

The Harvest of Grace:

Fleeing a terrible mistake, Sylvia Fisher dedicates herself to saving the failing Blank farm. When prodigal son Aaron returns, he is surprised by this unusual farmhand who opposes all his plans. Will Aaron and Sylvia’s unflinching efforts toward opposite futures mask the bigger picture—a path to forgiveness, grace, and the promise of love?
This three-in-one collection includes the entirety of the best-selling Ada’s House trilogy, now at a new low price

More About The Author:

Cindy Woodsmall

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times and CBA best-selling author of numerous works of fiction and one of nonfiction. Her connection with the Amish community has been featured widely in national media. She lives in the in the Foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with her family.

Michael Phillip Cash's "The After House" A Fabulous Read!! Paranormal, Suspense, Mystery, Romance and even Humor!

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23343135-the-after-house" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The After House" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413178671m/23343135.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23343135-the-after-house">The After House</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7060225.Michael_Phillip_Cash">Michael Phillip Cash</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1157650025">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
As soon as I saw that this book was available through shelf awareness I believe, I had to enter to get a copy, of course the premise is you give an honest review in exchange for the gook.<br><br>I've read a lot of Michael Phillip Cash's books and this latest one did not disappoint  me.  The After House is a book that covers many genrs, paranormal, suspense, mystery, romance and even has some humor included. The author doesn't mess about with a lot of frivolous extra to the story, he gets right at it. I get pulled in right from the beginning and I didn't want to put this book down.<br><br>It was intersting to me because it was based on the ghost of a captian of a whaling shiip and I knew nothing of that.  There was a story in the beginning that was pretty exciting telling so much about a whaling ship going down from a sperm whale that they hit and it didn't do what it usually would do it turned on the ship and tore it apart.  <br><br>Next we are going to a woman who is newly divorced moving into a home with her little girl, only to find that from the beginning the little girl could see the ghost in the house.  The ghost had been there in the home he had bought for his family, where he had come back looking for them and they were gone.....<br><br>He had a painter in the house for years a male whome he spent time with whispering in his ear as he slept and the painter turned out fabulous artwork of whales, whaling boats in action, and he painted a mural in the house which the woman is told must be left intact during her rental time.<br><br>The story is fabulous and a real must read and I don't want to tell the entire story for you here....<br><br>Here is the description as found on Good Reads: Remy Galway and her daughter Olivia are rebuilding their life after a failed marriage in a 300 year old cottage in historic Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Little do they know, another occupant is lurking in the haven of their own home. Will the After House be their shelter or their tomb?
<br/><br/>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2429900-brenda">View all my reviews</a>

"A Love Undone" An Amish Novel of Shattered Dreams and God's Unfailing Grace. Written by Cindy Woodsmall - My Review

 A Love Undone

An Amish Novel of Shattered Dreams and God's Unfailing Grace 
Written by Cindy Woodsmall

I do so love to read about the Amish, my Grandmother lives in a small town up north where we see Amish buggies in town all of the time. They do like to purchase/sell things and see the homeopathic practitioner there.

On to the book....Joline Keim lost her parents both at the same time in a buggy accident. she was supposed to marry the love of her life Van, and he just couldn't take on her entire family of brothers and sisters younger than she, she wouldn't leave them to be split up, so she takes on the raising if her sister and brothers.  and Van goes off and within a year is married to someone else. She meets horse trainer and father to a sweet nine year old.  The book is really all about Andy being a "grass widower".  Joline didn't hear him when he said he was a grass widower and she helps out with training horses that have been abused to get them to be ride able again.  Joline thinks Andy is a free man being a widower to marry again and she falls for Andy almost from the first day.

A Grass Widower is someone who marries and their spouse leaves, they can't divorce it isn't allowed and in Andy's case he doesn’t even know where his spouse is she had a mental problem wouldn't be treated for it and just left one day and never contacted him again.  Didn't try to see her son.  So Andy is not someone who can be marriage material.  Joline one day tells him how she feels about him, she also lets him into her secret, she paints paintings and she is good. Since their Bishop believes that pictures are not something that would be allowed by God she has to hide away in her Uncles Attic to paint.

So we have a husband and son abandoned to forge a path alone and a young woman who sacrificed her dreams, how will the God of grace and hope help them find their way, the book asks?

The book is rather complex in its story. There is quite a bit of information on how the Amish live, not quite as much as I've seen in other stories.  The book held my interest and I found myself reading when I should have been doing something else...a true sign that it is a interesting Amish story about a romance that can't happen and how they get around it or do they?

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

About This Book

A husband and son abandoned to forge a path alone.
A young woman who sacrificed her dreams.
How will the God of grace and hope help them find their way?

At nineteen years old, Old Order Amish Jolene Keim was on the brink of happily-ever-after when everything changed, stealing the future she expected and burdening her with an unbearable decision. For the next ten years, Jolene throws herself into family life—and then she meets Andy Fisher. The horse trainer and father to a sweet nine year-old challenges her and holds up a mirror to issues Jolene has been unwilling to face.

Andy is cautious about his deepening friendship with Jolene, but he believes she knows the truth about him – that he is a grass widower. As a man whose wife has abandoned him six years past, he is unable to divorce or remarry according to the Amish ways. Andy has wrestled with God concerning his reality, and he had found peace with the solitary future facing him…until he met Jolene.

As Andy and Jolene find themselves confronted by difficult choices, will they trust in God's guidance—or will the allure of their deepening friendship only lead to further temptation?

About This Author:

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times and CBA best-selling author of numerous works of fiction and one of nonfiction. Her connection with the Amish community has been featured widely in national media. She lives in the Foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with her family.

The 13th Gift - A True Story of a Christmas Miracle by Joanne Huist Smith - What a fabulous read!

The 13th Gift

A True Story of a Christmas Miracle

Wow I loved this book from the first chapter.  By the end of the book I was wishing I had money and the means to start something similar for families of loss myself.  This book is true, and it rings so true to me. Families do have a very real and very dysfunctional way of dealing with loss of a loved one and going on during the holidays is often something they just can’t pull off.  Some can’t face the holidays going forward due to the loss, it only seems to remind them.  For anyone who has lost a loved one, or anyone trying to recapture that feeling of Christmas this book is for you!  How could you continue with the feeling of Bah Humbug when you read of someone who lost their husband, brother, father, during the holidays and managed to pull themselves together with the help of their “True Friends”.  This book just brings joy and happiness to your heart upon reading it and makes you want to be a better self and go out and help someone who has less!  "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

More About The Book:

For readers of Richard Paul Evans and Greg Kincaid comes The 13th Gift, a heartwarming Christmas story about how a random act of kindness transformed one of the bleakest moments in a family's history into a time of strength and love.

After the unexpected death of her husband, Joanne Huist Smith had no idea how she would keep herself together and be strong for her three children--especially with the holiday season approaching. But 12 days before Christmas, presents begin appearing on her doorstep with notes from their "True Friends." As the Smiths came together to solve the mystery of who the gifts were from, they began to thaw out from their grief and come together again as a family. This true story about the power of random acts of kindness will warm the heart, a beautiful reminder of the miracles of Christmas and the gift of family during the holiday season.

About The Author: Joanne Huist Smith is a native of Dayton, OH. She earned a bachelor's degree in English at Wright State University and worked as a reporter for the Dayton Daily News. She is the mother of three and grandmother of two.

Feed Your Reader - Some great books for your kindle to be had from signing up for their emails!

Feed Your Reader Great Books Free For Your Kindles!

Bend Your Brain - Written By The Minds Behind Marbles: The Brain Store

I saw this book on the list of books I could choose from and I had to have it.  I don’t know what happens but it seems when we reach a certain age, we break into “Some Timers” and worry about having Alzheimer’s.  They say that you need to do puzzles, word search, soduku, any kind of things such as those, to help keep your brain growing and stretching to stave off such things.  I always tell everyone my brain is a sieve….words just seem to fall through the cracks.  I’ve started this book, I don’t know that I’ll be able to do every page,  I hate cheating and looking at the back for the answer.  I also hate sitting or walking around trying to remember a word or a thought, eventually though they do come to me, I’m not so sure with this book.  It does have a range from easy to blow your mind!  I’ll keep working on it but I have to say with growing certainty if you want to keep your brain nimble and working, or are looking for a fabulously different Christmas Gift this book is the right one! 
"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

More About The Book:

Synopsis

Want to get your frontal cortex breaking a sweat? Make your blood pump to your cerebellum? Stretch your occipital lobe to its limits?

Then you need to bend your brain! This first book from the team behind Marbles: The Brain Store, a chain devoted to building better brains, offers puzzles and brain teasers to help enhance memory, build problem-solving skills, and reduce stress.
        Since Marbles started helping people play their way to a healthier brain, they've sold, solved, and been stumped by more than their fair share of puzzles. Along the way, they've learned which puzzles tie people in knots (not in a good way) and which ones make the neurons downright giddy. With the help of their in-house team of Brain Coaches and access to cutting-edge neuroscience, they've designed these puzzles to keep your mind flexible and fit.
        Arranged in five key brain categories—visual perception, word skills, critical thinking, coordination, and memory—Bend Your Brain offers a variety of puzzles ranging from mind-warming (easy) to mind-blowing (hard!):
·  Connecting the dots? More like working your spatial-orientation skills.
·  Identifying famous smiles? Flexing your visual memory.
·  Taking a closer look at your keyboard? Coding, storing, and retrieving.
·  Word-doku? Summoning cognitive abilities like appraisal, inference, impulse control, and evaluation.
·  Word scrambles? Tapping your brain’s association areas.
Your brain is your most important muscle, so let the brain-building begin!

About The Author: Marbles: The Brain Store
MARBLES: THE BRAIN STORE is in malls across the country. They and their branded products have been featured in Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, USA Today, and Wired, as well as on the Today show and Martha Stewart Living.

Mother Mother by Koren Zailckas - My Review - 4.5 Stars

   Mother Mother by Koren Zailckas –

 This is the story of the Hurst family, and the family is not your normal famly, each of them is sick in their own way.  One of the main characters Violet who does something she can’t remember to her brother Will and ends up in a psych hospital.  The story starts to get really good by then.  This wasn’t the easiest read for me or the fastest but the bones of this story are good the characters well developed in their sick ways, one alcoholic, one who ran away, one controlling “mommy dearest” type of a Mother who Is also very good at covering up her ways of controlling her family and the way she makes them pay with her devious mental and sometimes physical games.  The book is an interesting read and once you get really into the story of each character you see the book slowly building to a finale that is so surprising you don’t see it coming, at least I didn’t.  You lead by the nose in one direction only to find you were mean to draw those conclusions which in the end are not even close to the way the book is going to end.  I found a lot of surprises were in store for the characters that made up this family and for myself.  It is an engrossing read, one that will keep you guessing and if you have problems getting into the story at first, I say keep going there is a point to all of it and it will get very interesting before the ending.  I would give this book a 4.5, since I can’t do that on places like Good Reads and Amazon where I am also going to park the books review, I will give it a 5.  "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.”

More About The Book:

From Koren Zailckas, author of the iconic memoir SMASHED: an electrifying debut novel about a family being torn apart by the woman who claims to love them most
 
Josephine Hurst has her family under control. With two beautiful daughters, a brilliantly intelligent son, a tech-guru of a husband, and a historical landmark home, her life is picture perfect. But living in this matriarch’s determinedly cheerful, yet subtly controlling domain hasn’t been easy for her family, and when her oldest daughter, Rose, runs off with a mysterious boyfriend, Josephine tightens her grip, gradually turning her flawless home into a darker sort of prison. 

Resentful of her sister’s newfound freedom, Violet turns to eastern philosophy, hallucinogenic drugs, and extreme fasting, eventually landing herself in a psych ward. Meanwhile, her brother, Will, recently diagnosed with Asperger's, shrinks further into a world of self-doubt. Their father, Douglas, finds resolve in the bottom of a bottle—an addict craving his own chance to escape. Josephine struggles to maintain the family’s impeccable façade, but when a violent incident leads to a visit from child protective services, the truth about the Hursts might finally be revealed. Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content.

More about the Author:

Photo © Eamon Hamilton

KOREN ZAILCKAS is an internationally bestselling writer, and has contributed to The Guardian, U.S. News & World Report, Glamour, Jane, and Seventeen magazine. She currently lives with her family in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

The Illusionist as written by Rosie Thomas - My review and where you can go to sign up to win books through the same place!

I'm going to let the descripton of the book tell you about it. I want to point out that Rosie Thomas the author had to have done an enormous amount of research to do this book and researched it and wrote about it well.  From the magicians tricks and illusions to what was invented during that period in the 1900's England, to the invention of recording voices and the process of which it was done, the first robotic type figures called automata, to the beginning of electricity and the first automobiles.  The book is rich in history each chapter about another figure in the book and they all interact with each other in a rather complete and rich way of writing. She builds on the characters well. It is a very large book almost five hundredd pages if you are looking for something entertaining, a story that you can sink your teeth into, rich in history and magic and the theater of the time than this book won't fail to disapoint.  The female who is the one of the main characters is not one fo those simpering beauties who only wish to do needlepoint and stay home pushing out babies and entertaing their husbands, this femail is very modern for her time, and you have to like her!  She was refreshing in her part of the story.  I would definately recommend this book to anyone who has interest in magic and illusions as the history of those goes back a long way and this was realy getting it's start during this time period.  
I'm not sure I loved the ending, but I'm not sure what I would have done different so I can't pick on that too much, I guess I wanted to see the characters, where they went beyond that time period I wasn't ready to give them up.  Read it you shouldn't be disappointed im this book, just remember this is not one that will grab you and keep you up all night reading and you can pull it off in one day...it is a longer novel!  I did win this book through BookReporter.com through their "One to Watch" contest.  If you would like to enter their contests they have a ton of them and you only need visit their site....http://bookreporter.com and sig up for the newsletters.
Here is the description as found on Good Reads:
From the bestselling author of the phenomenally successful The Kashmir Shawl

London 1870.
A terrifying place for a young, beautiful woman of limited means. But Eliza is modern before her time. Not for her the stifling if respectable conventionality of marriage, children, domestic drudgery. She longs for more. Through her work as an artist’s model, she meets the magnetic and irascible Devil – a born showman whose dream is to run his own theatre company.

Devil’s right-hand man is the improbably-named Carlo Bonomi, an ill-tempered dwarf with an enormous talent for all things magic and illusion. Carlo and Devil clash at every opportunity and it constantly falls upon Eliza to broker an uneasy peace between them. And then there is Jasper Button. Mild-mannered, and a family man at heart, it is his gift as an artist which makes him the unlikely final member of the motley crew.

Thrown together by a twist of fate, their lives are inextricably linked: the fortune of one depends on the fortune of the other. And as Eliza gets sucked into the seductive and dangerous world her strange companions inhabit, she risks not only her heart, but also her life…

Miss Brenda and her Loveladies by Brenda Spahn and Irene Zutell - My Review - A Mst Read!

  Miss Brenda and the Loveladies!  By Brenda Spahn and Irene Zutell

I absolutely loved this book and that it was a true story made it much more interesting.  I couldn’t put the book down. The main character Brenda Spahn had been very successful in her work, monetarily…..but she had a brush with the law, almost lost everything and just missed going to prison.  She made a deal with the Lord to start doing work for him, to live for him, if he kept her out of prison.  She didn’t go to prison as an inmate but she started going to the Julia Tutweiler Prison For Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.to speak to the inmates, she started a small church service there for them.  She decided that wasn’t enough she wanted to do more.  She learned that most of the women who were in the prison for much time at all, usually returned as they couldn’t make it when they got out on their own.  She arranged to take one of the homes she owned that was vacant, to make it a “whole way” center for women.  She wanted to teach them to live in the outside world to navigate the alien, and she also wanted to bring the Lord to them. 

She got permission to turn the home into a “whole way house” but the expected ex-cons that they sent to her, were not the ones with the light sentence.  She got the women who had rap sheets that were very long and they were not going to be easy for her, and the road was going to be long.  She did things with these women that people who ran “half way houses” never could. She was expected to fail.  She didn’t fail.  She held classes in Christianity, also how to make beds, how to clean, how to manage money, things that we all take for granted but things these women never had the opportunity and so much more.

There were a lot of stories, true stories, of each of the lives of the seven women who originally were the first to come to Brenda’s home.  The stories of each of these women were fascinating in that their lives included things most of us would never be able to even imagine.  Brenda even got these women to laugh at some of the awful things that happened to these women, the past didn’t seem to have as much a hold on them when they could laugh at it. 

Brenda called them Loveladies as that was her maiden name.   She and her first seven women and her first unlikely year is what is included in this book.  Brenda went from one small home to a very large facility for which four states now send women for the program.   She has now been Miss Brenda to over 450 women to date.

Of course this is a faith based story and it’s inspirational in that Brenda turned her family and life as she knew it upside down in order to serve her community and her Lord.  I found Brenda’s explanations to the women on different parts of the bible, how to pray, a different way to think of their Lord…..she let them know he was always with them.  Her breaking down of the “Lord’s Prayer” to them in teaching them how to pray was a very interesting way to think about it.  I had never heard it explained that way.

I so recommend this story to anyone.  There is humor, biography, Christianity non-denominational, and a great feel good and the end of the book.  It made me think that I have not done enough for the community I live with.  I’m not sure how much I could do, but perhaps I should find some ways to serve…..as should everyone else.  The community’s and the people who live in them could only be better for it.  It’s too bad we all don’t go about things the way Miss Brenda did and continues to do! "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

About This Book

One woman’s fight to provide hope for the hopeless…
Seven ex-cons who changed her heart forever…

For Brenda Spahn, entrepreneur and businesswoman, wealth was a lifestyle—until a brush with the law threatened to send her to prison. In those dark moments, Brenda made a promise to God.

Spared incarceration, a renewed Brenda glimpsed into the lives of women serving time in one of the worst places in America—the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.

What she saw prompted a God-inspired vision.

With a heart to help and a will that couldn’t be crushed, Brenda fought the system and overcame tremendous obstacles to take ex-cons into her own home and help them navigate the alien world of life on the outside.

This is the story of Brenda’s journey from rags to riches to redemption. It’s the story of the first unlikely year of her “Whole Way House” and of the extraordinary lives of the first seven women who came to call her “Miss Brenda.” It’s a story that testifies to the power of faith and how God changes hearts every day

About The Author

Brenda Spahn is founder and executive director of the Lovelady Center, the largest and most successful nonprofit transitional center for women in the country. It serves 450 women and children every day, providing substance abuse counseling, drug rehabilitation, meals, childcare, career counseling, and job opportunities to women working to establish successful lives outside of prison walls. Brenda is married and has four adult children as well as one young child who lives at home.

The Authors Web Site is located at http:/www.loveladycenter.org/The_Lovelady_Center.html