The Allergy Adventures with Cari the Cupcake by Donna and Reagan Webber

Summary

Although Cari the Cupcake looks like all the other cupcakes, she is made without nuts, eggs, or dairy. Cari is allergy-free! Now only time will tell if she she can reach her friends across the sea without irritating her allergies.

After she licks her way through Lollipop Lane, bounces on Gummy Bear Path, and travels on the Doughnut Plane over Nut Island, Cari the Cupcake finally lands on Cupcake Way where she learns that even a severly allergic cupcake can be safe and have fun with her friends.

In this delightful tale for children, an allergy-free cupcake embarks on an adventure through a sweet land to safely find her friends across the sea.


My Thoughts

This book is so cute!  I am a Kindergarten teacher and I love finding new books to read to my class.  This one is definitely going to be one that I read to them.

It's a great to have a book geared toward children with allergies and also to show children without severe allergies that children with them are just like everyone else.

The illustrations are simply adorable!  And, small children (Kindergarteners) are going to be attracted to pictures more than the actual story so I'm sure that this book will be a winner!  I can't wait to read The Allergy Adventures with Cari the Cupcake to my class.

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Split Second by Kelli J. Miller

Summary

When does the American Dream turn into a trap? What does it mean to succeed? What really gives meaning to our lives? 

Kelli Miller never had to worry about it--she had it all: a family, a career, a sprawling home, even an executive title. She thought she'd escaped her Midwestern roots and was sailing towards a golden future. Then, in a pivotal moment, confronted with the shadow of death, she found herself suddenly awake to the grim reality: the dream had consumed her life, and left her lost and alone. 

In Split Second, Kelli tells the story of how she set herself free, and recommitted herself to the most important pieces of her life: family, community, and a new openness to experience. It is the story of one woman's journey to find out what really matters and where her happiness ultimately lay.


My Thoughts

I've been told never to plan too strictly because life tends to do what it wants.  Life can throw you a curveball in the blink of an eye.  Split Second is a book about how Kelli Miller learned to deal with the curveballs that life threw at her.

This was a powerful book that really makes you step back and take a look at your own life.  Definitely a good read.

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For Life or Until by Anne Garboczi Evans

Summary

Subduing the barbaric hordes came easy, until he married one of them.

Everyone in the Celtic Catuvellauni village assumed Ness would marry the man she had loved since age fifteen. Their eventual matrimony seemed preordained. His inscrutable rejection of Ness sends shock through the entire community. Heartbroken but resilient, Ness accepts a marriage proposal from a most unlikely eligible bachelor.

Battle scarred and weary of solitude, Roman Tribune Aquilus trained to do just one thing all his life—stoically serve the empire. The beautiful tribeswoman perfectly answers a long ignored call from deep within his soul. Though he adores his new bride, when Ness harms a political connection, Aquilus lays down the law.

But Celtic women aren't inclined to submit to inconvenient rules, and the only obstacle standing between Ness and a Celtic divorce is Aquilus's garrison of legionaries.

Will Roman might, Celtic stubbornness, or something else entirely prevail?


My Thoughts

This is the first book that I read from Anne Garboczi Evans.  I have read reviews on her other books as well as this one and I see a lot of mixed feelings.  I did enjoy For Life or Until for the most part but I didn't exactly love it.

This book started pretty slow.  I struggled getting into it.  I'm not sure what it was that I needed, I just knew I needed something more.

Once the book got going I started to enjoy it more.  I liked the characters pretty well.  There were a few things that bothered me about some of their personalities but nothing I can completely pinpoint.

It was a pretty good book overall and I will probably recommend it to others.  Thanks for sending it my way!

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

True Mercy by Idelle Kursman

Summary

“In the midst of happy memories of licking the chocolate chip cookie batter . . . Adam
spotted a woman on the ground.”

Adam, an eighteen year-old with autism, unwittingly gets caught up in the evil network of human trafficking the day he finds Marina on the ground. Nursing fresh wounds from losing his mother, Adam is ecstatic to accept a new mother figure into his life. He longs for someone to take walks with and who will watch nature videos with him. He can't fathom, however, the horrific existence Marina has led prior to appearing in his neighborhood.

Marina, abducted from her country of Moldova, has landed in America and somehow managed to escape. Starving, filthy, and exhausted, she has nowhere to turn and desperately needs Adam's assistance. But what will Adam's father think of him allowing this emaciated refugee into their home?

Adam's father Bruce has his own troubles as the sole caregiver of Adam while trying to hold down a regular job. How will he take on the added responsibility of protecting Marina from the traffickers who are intent on recapturing her? Can he successfully protect both her and his childlike son?


My Thoughts

When I received the review request for True Mercy I was immediately interested.  The plot sounds gripping and very deep.  And, to my pleasure, that is what this book was.

I did enjoy this book pretty well.  There were things I didn't exactly love, like some of the character development and dialogue, but it was a good read overall.  I would probably recommend this book and maybe even read it again myself sometime.

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Secrets of Islayne by Kari Lynn West

Summary

A powerful island. A dangerous mystery. An impossible choice.

For centuries, the island of Islayne has given certain residents the ability to revive other people’s memories. These gifted individuals are known as luminators, and sixteen-year-old Ronan Saunders desperately desires to join their illustrious ranks. As he struggles against the prejudice of the old, powerful families who have an iron grip on the trade, Ronan falls under the tutelage of a reclusive luminator, rumored to be insane.

Just when his long-desired future is within reach, Ronan and his three friends discover a deadly secret on the island. As they delve deeper into the mystery, what they find forces them to question their loyalties, doubt long-held beliefs, and wrestle with the dire consequences of revealing the truth. Ronan finds himself torn between everything he loves and the only future he’s ever wanted. The entire fate of the lumination trade hangs in the balance of his decision.


My Thoughts

Where should I begin?!  This book was so good!  My only frustration is that it took me so long to get to this book!

Kari Lynn West has a major talent for world building.  It doesn't even take a lot of imagination to picture this world that she has created.  The place, time, powers, all of it!  Very well done!

The characters are interesting and believable.  That can be tricky with fantasy/sci-fi type books.  But, these characters were very well written.

The plot is original and it keeps you intrigued.  There are a ton of slow moving areas that make you want to put the book down.  It moves at a nice pace throughout.

The ending was somewhat abrupt but it seems to work in this book.  I don't think that I could have pictured it any other way.  All in all, The Secrets of Islayne is a very enjoyable book and I definitely recommend it!

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beauty by Peter Liney

Summary

When cosmetic and transplant surgery get together and beauty becomes a commodity that can be bought and sold, the Rich become more beautiful, the Poor less. But if something can be traded, it can also be stolen – brutally, violently, by the feared face-stealers, and to a point where the rich finally cry ‘Enough! . . . Enough. Make us plain; make us ordinary.’ Now there is no beauty left, not as we once knew it, only photos, videos, exhibitions. And yet . . . you still hear the occasional rumor.


My Thoughts

When I read the summary of this book I was immediately intrigued.  Books like this always seem to hook me.  It is hard to stick to me tar list when a great sounding book comes in.

Beauty started a bit slow but if you stick with it you won't be disappointed.  The plot of this story is great!  You can honestly picture the events happening.  It's actually pretty scary!  Once the action starts, you don't want to put this book down.

There were very few things that I had issues with in this book.  Maybe some formatting issues and things like that but it's not hard to look past them.  Pick this book up and enjoy!

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kauai Stories by Pamela Varma Brown

Summary

Take home the joy of Hawaii in this collection of 50 inspiring, humorous and touching stories about life in the happiest state in America told by people of the island of Kauai. Feel the ocean spray as residents share their love of surfing, canoe paddling and strolling along secluded sun-drenched beaches, often making the only footsteps in the sand. Learn hula from women who keep the traditional native dance alive. Laugh with people as they recall innocent childhoods growing up island-style in multi-cultural sugar plantation "camps," going barefoot until high school and making toys of whatever was on hand, like Frisbees from car-flattened, sun-dried toads. Chuckle at humorous tales of acceptance and affection for the island's wild chicken population. Journey thousands of miles across oceans in a voyaging canoe with sailors who navigate only by the stars, the moon, the sun and waves as their ancestors did when they discovered Hawaii more than 1,500 years ago. Catch the fun, spirit and adventure of life in Hawaii through the voices of Kauai's people!

My Thoughts

I always enjoy stories about real people's lives.  It is interesting to read about different people in the same area, how their lives might be similar or different.  If a story makes you feel like you were there, it is a good story!

I planned on waiting until the weather got a little warmer to read this book.  I wanted to be able to picture myself in Kauai because, maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time reading a book about a hot climate when it is snowing outside!  Anyways, I picked this book up while it was still pretty chilly outside but I was still able to enjoy it :)

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pearl by Brian Kindall

Summary

Pearl can’t move. She’s never wanted to, until now. Life above the waves beckons to her as she watches the boats moving along the surface of the water above her. Pearl is a statue carved of milk-white stone that has stood on the floor of an ancient sea for a thousand years, but she’s waking up, and she wants more. As desire builds within her, it propels her on a journey that takes her to an exotic island grotto, into the midst of a bloody revolution, underground into a rat-infested tomb, and, at last, to a magical mountain paradise. Crazed rebels, wise philosophers, greedy grave robbers, and a few other friendly people and fish accompany her along the way, as she asks the question, “Is desire enough?” She'll have to have faith in the stars. She'll have to muster more courage than she's ever imagined. But perhaps by journey's end, Pearl will believe in herself, experience a miracle, and realize her greatest desire of all.

My Thoughts

I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I have never before read a book quite like this book.  I kept going back and forth from liking it to not liking it.  However, the good outweighed the not as good, so the liking outweighed the not liking.

Pearl is considered a middle grade book but I can see adults enjoying it as well.  It is a short book, at only 166 pages, but I didn't feel like the book was lacking anything in the story.  As a matter of fact, the ending was just what I was hoping for.

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.