Book Review: Let's Talk by Art Rios

 

 

Let's Talk by Art Rios

Book starts out with reviews from others and free offer of other works from the author.

Dedication page, table of contents then the story itself.

There are many uplifting notes from the author, stories and common sense things. He makes the perfect case, being a lawyer about how to change your life, especially with the pandemic. Love the spots where he talks about family life with the pandemic and how treasured the moments are.

Excellent read all about doing things now to make life easier when you are older.

Love the ideas and KISS, Lagom-which I've read a lot about recently, and decluttering things to name just a few.

Religion is discussed and so many sensible ideas that we should already be doing.

So much peace, calm and tranquility. I don't go along with all of the chapters but that's just my personal viewpoint. 

Ends with acknowledgements, about the author and bonus material offer.

Received this review copy from the publicist and this is my honest opinion.

Book Review: A Small Voice by Anne Greene

 

A Small Voice by Anne Greene 

Book starts off with a dedication page and scripture.

Story starts by following Piper McCormack and she's talking to her friend who's set her up with a blind date. She has to relay to her friend the reason why she doesn't want to date a doctor, especially an OBGYN. When I heard the story behind her decision it also didn't set well with me. I had never heard about this experience. I know nothing abut abortions.

The words are so real to me I can see the fetus going through what Piper describes. Never realized there could ever be a group of abortion survivors.

Story for me takes on a new approach after hearing all this. Love that she fights for not only her life but her past and others who've gone through the same thing.

She does date Jake Connors and he's a very accomplished doctor. They go to many events around the holiday and they get to know one another. Upon returning to the airfield after he was piloting the plane he is kidnapped and they hadn't seen her in the passenger seat of the plane.

She gets a lot of information about the culprits and calls the police. Others try to help her  ease her mind about the event.

Piper is a chemist dealing with scents. Love hearing about her blog and she hopes to help the police in further investigations as she has with the current one. She is able to pinpoint where Jake was held by the smell on his clothes. 

Love how she talks to her aborted sister throughout the book and relies on God to help with scriptures she has learned over the years.

Love how Jake does support her blog especially with the ending poem.

Book club discussion questions are listed at the end. Note from the author and her bio are included.

Listings of her other works and contacts online are listed.

Excerpt from Mystery at Dead Broke Ranch is also included.

Love all the research the author did on the subject. Made this book a bit easier for me read.

Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion.

Book Reviews: Snowman Paul at the Winter Olympics and Kate's Olympic Dream by Yossi Lapid

 

Snowman Paul at the Winter Olympics by Yossi Lapid

Colorful, children's book about the Winter Olympics. 

Dan a little boy watches as Snowman Paul is studying about the events in the winter Olympics. He wants to compete and knows he will win gold.

He exercises and Dan is afraid Paul  will hurt himself. The snowman is made of snow so there's not much harm he can come on on the snow.

He competes in all the events and his scores are very high then Dan realizes how it all happened....cheat????

He talks to Paul about it and wants him to do the right thing.

Love all the events he competes in, so real to life!  Paul can't wait for the summer games to compete again but that might be a bit hard as he will melt in the hot weather.

Dedication page at the end and a note from the author.

Highlighted works from the author are also listed at the end.

Snowman Paul and Kate's Olympic Dream by Yossi Lapid

Colorful children's book about Snowman Paul and he's watching Kate skate and talks to Dan about how good she is.

Kate wants Paul to give her some tips as he had won gold medals.

Paul asks Dan to help also then he will help him win at ice chess on the frozen pond...

As a team they helped her with jumps, speed and other things til she collapses. She knows she's not good enough but Dan and Paul have other plans for her...

They give her confidence and she shows them all!  She has a skating test and she has a big success. Now to help Dan with his chess game...

Beautiful colors and things to look at in the book, they really stand out.

Dedication and a note from the author and highlights of the authors other works are listed at the end.

Book Review: The Scavenger by Aidan Lucid

 

The Scavenger by Aidan Lucid 

Not my usual genre but thought I'd give it a try. This book starts out with a group of three high school kids and they each have problems.

One has come out and announced he is gay, one is under pressure to excel at sports, another has an alcoholic mother that mistreats her and as time goes on there are others with their problems that want to be part of the group.

They are all there for one another at school and decide to attend the Halloween party. The bullies are there to torment him and others stick up for him. On their way home they stop to help a 12 year old in the street and end up following her in the woods.

The well must have some type of magic as they toss in a coin and make a wish. The next day they notice a lot of things different in their lives:

the main athletic kid is now friends and sticking up for the gay kid; her mother is making her breakfast and lunch and being nice to her; pressure to excel has slacked off...

One also has horrid nightmares of the ghosts chasing him and they want to overtake his body-all because of the wish that came true for him. Problem is others could die because of their wishes.

They blame themselves.....til they find a relative that has answers for their nightmares...

Very descriptive I can picture myself viewing the scenes directly.

Like how it ends, could lead up to another in this series as Jared gets older...

Ends with about the author and contact information.

Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion.

Feb 2 The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

 

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Book starts out with a listing of the author's other works, dedication and prologue where we learn about the penny that has hope for one's new life in US.
1921 and we start out in TX and Elsa has been raised to be very poor in health so the parents keep her safe at home.
Her sisters are beautiful and are married and out in the world. Elsa wants to be more like them so she does a few things to her hair and dress and spends the night at a speakeasy where she meets a boy.
She meets him more over time and before you know it she's with child. What I hated to read was that her father dropped her off at the boys house for them to take care of the daughter and child.
She was from a very well to do banker family and knows nothing of preparing meals and doing chores. She is thankful to learn how to do everything.
Rafe is tired of TX life and the droughts cause him to just up and leave to head to CA. They don't hear from him and the youngest boy needs to be relocated for his health so she packs up the kids and heads west also, leaving the grandparents behind.
Terrifying hearing of the nights spent on the road and passing through the desert. When they reach CA things are not what they expected and Elsa is NOT afraid to work. She meets a wonderful woman in camp who gives her information about how to survive.
She did scrub a woman's house from top to bottom til 6pm one day and got 40 cents. She puts the kids in school and while searching for work she tries to also find Rafe.
Fell in love with this side of CA during the depression reading about it from John Steinbecks stories so to me this is an added plus to continue on with the story coming from a different irrespective.
Hard times hits them front and center and just when you think they are getting ahead you realize they are not. They realize it also and the daughter goes to do something about it.
So many emotions and I love hearing of the travels and the places they went through on their way to follow their dreams.
Tragic times and love hearing about how they survived through it all. Love hearing of the strikes during the time as the land owners were in control and could set the price of a picker for the day...
Never saw the ending happening as it did but was so glad Ledora gets to bring it all full circle and move on with her life as she gets older.
Received this review copy from St. Martin's Press via publicist via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
#TheFourWinds #NetGalley

#stmartins

Book Review: PACKFIRE: Simon Pack # 9 by John M Vermillion

 

PACKFIRE: Simon Pack # 9 by John M Vermillion

This story starts out with Simon and he wants to give up his deputy status to go after the people responsible for killing a close friends family: wife and children. He makes a deal with his boss for a leave of absence from work instead so he can follow the leads.

Only the eight month old survived and he and his friends collect the clues to find the culprits. They are able to narrow down a few and Simon travels to other locations to question others with some knowledge.

The note found has some cryptic words and he has an idea who he needs to go after.  His dog comes across one suspect and  another is able to  halt him...

Love how the community comes together to help those in need the most.

Simon realizes his days may be numbered and that he needs to make a few choices.

DA wants his friend as the killer of the man in the woods.... Major heads to VA to follow up leads on man that was killed in the woods and he learns so much, wow this was amazing and hard to read at the same time, the things he finds out about the boy.

Love hearing of the Viking connection and also a bit more about Antifa.

Lots of action, adventure, mystery, travel, horrific sights, weapons, strategy and outwitting the culprits.

About the author, where to contact the author are included at the end. Can't wait to read more.

Love catching up with the characters from previous works.

Received this review copy from the publicist and this is my honest opinion.

Feb 1 Book Review: Valentine's Day with Snowman Paul by Yossi Lapid

 

Valentine's Day with Snowman Paul by Yossi Lapid

Colorful children's story about snowman Paul and he's visiting around Valentine's day.

He's very excited to learn all about this holiday.

He reads and finds out it's about hearts and love. He's confused about what love because he's just a snowman.

Dan has an idea that will show Paul when he loved him and brings up the memories.

What I love about this book is not only the story but that i can actually read all the print words.

There are not VERY many and they are to the point and the background does not get in the way of being able to see them.

Paul understands and he brings up the Christmas eve incident when he was sad and Dan was there for him.

Then they decide to have some Valentine fun. 

Valentine Snow Hearts, such a cool idea. Dedication page at the end.

Note from the author also.

Can't wait to read more from this author. Hope there will be an Easter one soon.

Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion.