World on a String written by Larry Phifer and beautifully illustrated
by Danny Popovici. It is about a boy named Charlie who finds a balloon and it soon
becomes his best friend. He absolutely loves his red balloon and sees it as the
most amazing thing in the world.
Charlie takes his balloon everywhere and he has a
whole lot of fun with his balloon. But one day, the wind blows the balloon
away. Charles tries to grab it but he is unable to. At first, he is shocked,
then he fears for his balloon’s safety, and then, he is grief stricken. But then he thinks back to all the good times
they shared and then he starts to think about the great place that his balloon
has gone. He images it shinning like the
moon and he dreams of it holding the sky up with other balloons.
This is a great children’s book! The artwork is beautiful and
the story itself is uplifting. It is a great way to teach children about love
and loss. It is also beautifully written in rhyme and flows nicely making it
easy to read.
Welcome to the August
29, 2013 Three Little Words BookTrib
blog tour stop.
THREE LITTLE WORDS By Susan Mallery Harlequin HQN; August 2013 $7.99 U.S./$9.99 CAN.; 384 pages ISBN-13: 978-0-373-77778-5
I am not a first time
reader of Susan Mallery’s books. I am a big fan of the Blackberry Island series
so I jumped at the chance to read her new novel from The Fools’ Gold series. Thank you to Alissa from Meryl L. Moss Media sending
me a free copy for my review.
ABOUT
THE BOOK:
Isabel Carlisle’s
older sister was once engaged to Ford Hendrix. When Maeve broke Ford’s heart,
he joined the Navy to get away from Fool’s Gold. At age 14, shortly after her sister broke off
the engagement, Isabel sent her first letter to Ford, professing her love and
she vowed she would love Ford forever.
Isabel continued to write Ford until she married. Although Ford never wrote back, he enjoyed
receiving her letters because they kept him sane.
Now divorced, Isabel
has returned home and so has Ford. They
both insist they are not looking for love but start to “pretend” date to fool
Ford’s mother who is trying to marry him off.
It does not take long for Isabel and Ford to realize that the only
people they are fooling are themselves. The chemistry between them is undeniable.
ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A SUSAN
MALLERY FOOLPROOF BRIDAL KIT!
The Susan Mallery
Foolproof Bridal Kit is $40 value and includes:
Leave a comment and let
me know you are interested in winning the bridal kit. I will need your email
address so I can let you know if you have won.
Contest closes Thursday, September 5. U.S. Addresses only. Also, you do not have to be getting married or know anyone getting married to enter or win. It is just a cool way to promote the book.
ABOUT
SUSAN:
New York Times and
USA Today bestselling author SUSAN MALLERY is known for emotionally complex
stories told with charm and wit. With a keen eye for human nature, she breathes
life into characters on the page and was recently honored with a prestigious
National Readers’ Choice Award. Susan has lived all over the United States,
including a childhood in the suburbs of Los Angeles, graduate school in the
hills of Pennsylvania and several years in Texas. These days, she makes her
home in Seattle, Washington. She’s there for the coffee, not the weather.
This is a great book to share with
children of all ages. It is a wonderful
way to show children magic of idioms. If you don’t know, idioms are words that separately
have one meaning but put together they mean something different. Life is
a Bowl Full of Cherries by Vanita Oelschlager uses food idioms to explain
this concept.
Examples of food idioms include phases
such as “couch potato,” “the whole enchilada,” and crying over spilt milk. Illustrated
by Robin Hegan, Life is a Bowl Full of
Cherries uses unusual illustrations to describe what the words literally
mean.
The bizarre photos force the reader to
guess the actual meanings of what the words literally mean. The meanings are found upside in the corner
of each page.
By the books end, there a section
discussing how figures of speech work in everyday language. This makes it a remarkable
educational tool because children are always curious about language and when
you make it fun, kids want to learn even more.
You can purchase Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries from any fine book retailer,
including Amazon
and Barnes
& Noble. You also find at Wal-Mart’s
online site.
Abby tells herself she is the
luckiest woman in the world but that does not last long. Her life and her luck change in an instant…
Abby’s son, Jake, is away at college
and her husband, Nick, and her daughter, Lindsey, set out for a camping trip. Abby
looks forward to the quiet time she will have while the two of them are
away. That morning, she gets to braid her
daughter’s hair and kiss her husband goodbye.
For one brief moment, Abby reminds herself that she is a lucky woman to
have a good marriage and good life. But
then after a storm and flood happen, her perfect life crumbles when her husband
and daughter vanish without a trace.
Abby is convinced that Nick and
Lindsey are still alive especially since no remains were recovered. She finds
herself going through various theories, including one that has to do with her
husband’s involvement in high profile legal case where he was later accused of
embezzlement. She also wonders if they
were kidnapped or perhaps, if her husband decided to run away with her
daughter.
As she seeks closure, Abby
realizes that her life was not as perfect as she perceived it to be. She
discovers she did not know her husband as well as she thought she did and her marriage
wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Further, she finds herself on path she never she would take. The truth
is a lot of more difficult than Abby could have ever realized. Can she handle truth? You will have to read Evidence of Lifeto
find out.
Evidence of Life
is well written and offers a captivating storyline. The characters appear realistic due to their
shortcomings. In the end, everything comes into place for Abby but the ending isn’t
what anyone anticipates.
Excerpt from Evidence of Life
“On the last ordinary day of her life before
her family went off for the weekend, Abby made a real breakfast—French toast
with maple syrup and bacon. It was penance, the least she could do, given how
utterly delighted she was at the prospect of being left on her own for two
whole days to do as she pleased. It would sicken her later, in the aftermath of
what happened, that she could so covet the prospect of solitude, but in that
last handful of ordinary hours, she was full of herself, her silly plans. She
set a small mixing bowl on the counter, found the wire whisk, and when Nick
came in the backdoor, she brandished it, smiling at him.
He frowned. “What are
you doing?”
“Cooking breakfast,
French Toast.”
“We don’t have time.
We’re going to hit rush hour traffic as it is.”
“It’ll be fine,” Abby
soothed.
He came to the sink
still wearing the wisp of bloodstained tissue he’d stuck below his ear where
he’d cut himself shaving and the rumpled cargo shorts he’d pulled out of the
hamper as if he didn’t have a drawer full of clean ones. As is the unwashed
pair were the only ones that suited him.
Abby got out a frying
pan, aware of his mood, regretful of it. She wished he hadn’t bothered with
shaving. She wished she’d done the laundry yesterday. Leaving the breakfast
makings, she went to him, circled his waist from behind, laid her cheek against
his back. “I’m sorry about your shorts.” The words were right there but they
caught in her throat when she felt him go still.”
Faith Holland was left at the
alter three years ago by her high school sweetheart Jeremy who came out of the
closet on their wedding day. She then
left her hometown for San Francisco where she has had a thriving a professional
life. She returns home to Manningsport
where she will have to face her past and Levi Cooper, the handsome police chief
she blames for ruining her life.
As much as Faith loved to come
home, seeing Jeremy and her family means she has to relive her past and the
guilt she feels. Jeremy was the love of her life, her prince charming. They
were supposed to live happily ever after. After so many disappointments, when
it came to dating, Faith was still not over being jilted by the love of her
life.
When she gets home, she realizes
that some things never change and that she has to face all her demons. She is angry at Levi for convincing Jeremy
to be honest with her and himself on their wedding day. She tells herself that it is easier to blame
him than to face her past and a tragedy that she has followed her for most of
her life.
Faith has spent her life looking
for love, acceptance and peace of mind. In
addition, Faith deals with her dysfunctional but wonderful family, finding love
and clarity and even having to share secrets from her past including the death of her mother.
Still angry at Levi, she doesn’t see
what everyone sees in the Chief of Police.
He is the perfect man - handsome, a wonderful, and caring. Much to her dismay, she runs into Levi all
over town. However, as she gets to know
him better, she soon finds herself falling for him.
I recently had the opportunity to review Three Sisters by Susan Mallery as part of a month long blog tour for the New York Times bestselling author’s new novel, a second book in the Blackberry Island series. For more information about the blog tour and to read reviews, excerpts, Q&As and enter giveaways, CLICK HERE.
Andi Gordon was left at the altar and resolves that it is time for her to start anew. She relocates to Blackberry Island after purchasing one of the famous Three Sisters Queen Anne homes. Her house is in the middle of the three homes and in desperate need of renovation. She plans on living on the second floor and making the first floor a pediatric practice. Wade King is the handsome contractor who is working on her house and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Andi’s new life is coming together but she finds herself holding back. She is afraid of being jilted by love again so she attempts to be cautious until she realizes that she is missing out.
Next door lives artist Boston King. She is married to Zeke, her college sweetheart, and she once believed that they would be married forever. That was before they lost their infant son and catastrophe tears their happy union apart. Zeke drinks to the point of a drunken state to help him cope while Boston paints portraits of their late son. They are both coping in their own ways but unfortunately, their coping skills are pulling them part. Boston realizes that they must move past their loss, but she fears that they will each do that separately.
Deanna Phillips lives in the third of the Queen Anne homes. She suspects her husband Colin is having an affair and she confronts him. Once she does this, she finds out how unhappy she is. Her husband tells her that she is the problem and she learns that he is right. She is trying to be the perfect wife and mother and in doing so, she has lost herself and she may lose her entire family if she does not figure how to change.
The three women are thrown together by fate and in the beginning, they are not sure that they can be friends. However, they soon build a strong friendship full of laughter, love and tears. They turn to one another during the toughest of times and they rejoice during the joyful moments. They find out that fate may have made them neighbors but their love made them friends and sisters.
I
recently had the opportunity to review The Power Trip by
Jackie Collins. I received the audiobook from Macmillan Audio.
Aleksandr
Kasianenko, a Russian business tycoon, has a special birthday surprise for his
girlfriend, Bianca, a famous supermodel.
He has built her a yacht, crowned it “The Bianca” and for its first
voyage, Alek and Bianca invite five couples to join them on cruise through the
Sea of Cortez. The couples include movie
star, Cliff Baxter and his girlfriend, Lori, who is half his age, UK football
player Taye Sherwin and his interior designer wife, Ashley, Senator Hammond
Patterson and his wife, Sierra, Latin singer Luca Perez and his promiscuous
partner, Jeremey, and Journalist Flynn Hudson and his friend Xuan. They are in for a vacation of a lifetime and
Alek promises it will be unforgettable.
It
becomes even more unforgettable when Russian mobster, Sergei Zukov, finds out
that Alek is the one who arranged the murder hit on his brother five years
ago. Sergei is working with a Mexican
named Cruz, who is a master pirate, in hopes of getting revenge on Alek. He,
Cruz, and Cruz’s band of Somali pirates plan holding The Bianca’s guests for
ransom, while Sergei has plans for Alek.
The
celebrities vacationing on The Bianca are far from perfect. Alek has spared no
expense and wants everything to be perfect for Bianca but even in paradise,
there is trouble. Ashley is still upset about an indiscretion outside their
marriage that Taye had years ago that made tabloid news. Luca is discovering that Jeremy is not the
man for him due to Jeremy’s uninhibited sexual urges outside of their
relationship. Sierra has finally had it
with Hammond’s threats and sexual infidelities.
Flynn finds that he cannot escape the love that he thought broke his
heart many years ago only to find that Hammand had a part in breaking him and
Sierra up. Xuan finds herself dealing
with Bianca’s jealousy. Cliff has made
decision to break up with Lori after the trip but soon realizes that perhaps he
is mistaken about Lori. Meanwhile, Alek
is determined to make this experience wonderful for Bianca as he plans on
proposing marriage at the end of the trip.
He has no idea that he may not have the chance.
The
pirates think they have an advantage over the passengers and crew of The
Bianca. Everything changes with the passengers
and crew fight back. There will be deaths and there will be changed
relationships.
Jackie
Collins does what she does best and there will be plenty of secrets, lies,
sexual feats, and backstabbing. The Power Tripnow
available in print
and in audiobook.
I was not paid for this review. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for sending me a
free copy for my review.
