Witchbond - M/M Romance - Witchblood Sequel

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I finished reading Witchbond (Kitsune Chronicles Book 2).  I read it over 2 days much like I did the previous book in the series Witchblood.

In Witchbond Sebastian, a fox among werewolves, is struggling to find his place in the pack.  Some of the members left because of Liam choosing him as a mate, and the others seem to feel like Seb just isn't part of the pack.

The wolves feel a battle is coming, and Seb isn't doing his part to protect the pack, not being able to control his Kisune (a powerful spirit he carries with him....much stronger than his fox).

When he finds himself separated from Liam, Seb can think only about getting back to his mate, and his pack, before the separation kills him.

The biggest problem in this book as the same as the last one.  It was very, very repetitive.

This is a M/M romance, and there are explicit sex scenes so it is not for all readers.

Now, I am a person who has SEVERAL books going at the same time.  Right now I'm also reading The Wind Though the Keyhole by Stephen King, Nightbooks by J.A. White, and Midnight Magic (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 2) by Sara Bourgeois.

We did go to the book store today, and I also got Baby Teeth: A Novelby Zoje Stage, so that's another one.  And I'm still reading Mrs. Perivale as well, just not as into that one as I hoped I would be.

Witchblood - M/M Romance

Witchblood: (Kitsune Chronicles Book 1) kept popping up on my facebook feed as a book I might like, and since I've been reading a bunch of werewolf fiction on Wattpad I thought I'd give it a try.

Raped, beaten and left for dead,
Sebastian draws power from a stranger who shows up in the nick of time, and then runs away, not knowing if the person lives or dies.

A year later, he has been on the run, trying to stay ahead of his vicious ex, a powerful werewolf.  Being a fox shapeshifter, and semi-power alchemist, Sebastian only wants to feel safe, to feel HOME.

Then he meets Liam, a powerful Alpha werewolf.  And despite trying to run away (his instinct to mistrust and to run being overpowering) he finds himself in Liam's care.  

Fate seems to want the pair of them together and Liam will do anything to protect the fox, even when his dangerous past catches up to him.

It is a M/M romance, with explicit sex scenes and therefore not for everyone.

While parts of it were repetitive, I did enjoy it, and have downloaded the sequel.

World Without Crows Review

The World Without Crows is both a coming of age story and a post-apocalyptic novel.

The Plot

In 1989 a parasite, commonly called the Vacca B, brought about the end of the world.  A year later our protagonist, Eric, decides to walk from Ohio to Maine in search of an island in a middle of a lake from his childhood.

The Vacca B turns people into zombies, but not traditionally.  The zombies in the book are mostly non-issues.  People who just kind of sit and stare into space and ignore you.  Some of the zombies are "Cracked" and thus more violent, but even they seem to be a non-issue in the novel, rarely making appearances.  Animals can also be infected with the Vacca B and more of the animals seemed to be "cracked" than humans.

My Thoughts

It was a good story and a fast read but seemed to be lacking a few things.  The author uses small sort sentences to tell the story instead of being more descriptive and showing you the scenes.  For example:

"He would have to walk."
"She was in the street.  Someone had shot her."

And we don't delve too deeply into anyone's thoughts, which makes it hard for the reader to really feel anything about anyone.  There is little, if any, emotion connected to the deaths in Eric's travels.
You also don't get any backstory on the characters.  Normally I'm not a fan of flashbacks but would have made an exception in this case becauseThe World Without Crows is full of so many potentially amazing characters who are just kind of there.

Should You Read It

If you want an intensely emotional or scare read, this book is not for you.
This does not mean it was a bad book.  I finished it in a matter of days and it makes for a quick summer read and would rate it 3 out of 5 stars and you recommend it to a teen or young adult who is looking to ease into the horror or zombie genre.

If you would like to give it a read you can buy the ebook or the paperback through Amazon.

Or if you want a slightly more intense zombie novel with a similar theme of traveling to a certain destination in a post-zombie world, you could check out Red Hill by Jamie McGuire.

The Author

Ben Lyle Bedard is the author of The World Without Crows.  He chose to self-publish and markets this novel on his own.  You can find out more about him and his novel on his Website The Blog of Ben.
(I won a free copy of this book from a Goodreads Giveaway.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.)
If you are looking for something else to read, you might want to look at some of my other reviews.
Full Wolf Moon
Camp So-and-So
and MORE.
Or, visit Wild Verbs to read some of the fiction that I have written myself.

Rabbit Cake

As March faded into April, and with April 1st being Easter, it seemed fitting that I read a book about rabbits.  Because surely a book called Rabbit Cake with a bunny on the cover is about rabbits, right?
No, not really (and no I didn't really think that), but Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett was a story that grabbed me and didn't let go.

Elvis's mom bakes rabbit cakes to celebrate special occasions.  The first day of school, new moons, birthdays.  She says a rabbit meant good luck to a new start.  But on Elvis's 10th birthday Mom burned the rabbit cake.

Six months later she sleepwalked into a river and drowned.

Elvis is a smart girl.  She knows a lot about animals.  But what she doesn't know is how her mom's death could have been an accident.

While her dad starts wearing her mom's clothes and lipsticks, and her older sister starts sleep-eating instead of sleepwalking, Elvis tries to find any good reason her mom would have killed herself.
Over the next 18 months, she tries to cope with her own grief and her families grief in the only way she knows how.

Rabbit Cake is a coming of age story which is heartwarming, heartbreaking and humorous in all the right ways.  I would love to see a sequel story centered around this family.

MAKING A RABBIT CAKE

Over 1000 Rabbit cakes were baked, eaten, judged or destroyed in this book.  While some were left plain, some were fanciful and some were decorated to look like real rabbits.  Elvis tells us on the first page of the novel:

A rabbit cake is baked in a two-sided aluminum mold, producing a three-dimensional cake.  That's the miracle of it: the cake stands up on its own, on its four paws.

I pictured them as looking a lot like this cake pan available from Amazon:
I've never made one before, but maybe we should all start celebrating the new beginnings, or even the daily mundane tasks, of our lives with Rabbit Cakes.

Rabbit Cake is the 18th book out of the 60 I hope to read this year.  See Everything I've read on my 2018 Reading List

Is A Quiet Place a Rip-off?

I've been seeing previews for a while now of a movie called A Quiet Place.  Due to be released in theaters on April 6th, I have not had a chance to see it yet.

However, since the very first time I saw the preview something about this movie has bugged me to no end.


In the preview we see a family which must be very, very quiet at all times.  Because there is something out there that hunts them if they make a sound.  Any sound.

I kept thinking, "I've read that book!"  But I couldn't think of the name of the book.

So tonight I went digging on the internet and found out that "A Quiet Place" isn't based on a book.
A Quiet Place is about a family trying to survive in a world that is post-apocalypse.  A creature hunts them if they make a sound.  And looking further into it turns out that one of the children is deaf so the family already knew sign language and all that good stuff to give them a small but slightly better chance at knowing how to survive in silence.

Nothing about it being based on a book though, which confused me because I KNOW the story.  I READ the story.  But I couldn't remember the name of it.  So I kept typing what I remembered of the story into google until I found it.


In the novel, The Silence by Tim Lebbon (published in April of 2015) havoc has been wreaked on the world by creatures which.... hunt by sound!

It follows a family trying to survive in a world where they are being hunted by creatures who hunt by sound.  The slightest sound means death.  Also, and huge surprise here, the daughter in the story is deaf, so the family knows sign language and has the ability to communicate in silence already.

Judging by what little we see of the creature in the preview for A Quiet Place it is vastly different from the Vesps (the winged creatures who hunt the family in The Silence), but the rest of the story appears too close to the novel for the novel to have not gotten credit.

In some communication on the author's page I see I am not the only person who feels uncomfortable with how similar they film and the novel are.  The author says he is aware of the film and he also  says:

Hi Folks … thanks for your comments and concerns. There are similarities, of course, but I’m confident that the movie of The Silence will stand on its own. It’s going to be epic!
It is a little troubling, but I guess that’s all I can say about it.

Meanwhile, The Silence itself is in pre-production.  Yep, it's being turned into a movie.

I can see it now though when The Silence comes out in film version a whole bunch of people are going to be angry because they are going to be SURE that it's ripping off A Quiet Place.

What do you think? Coincidence or not?

I guess I'll have to wait until I see the film to pass final judgment, but that preview sure does make it feel fishy to me.

They Sky is Yours

The Sky is Yours

Two dragons have risen from the sea, and now they perpetually fly above Empire Island in this dystopian tale by Chandler Klang Smith.

I went into it with high hopes, but in the end I was a bit disappointed.

The characters are, for the most part, of the "poor little rich kid" variety.  The haves, who even in a burned out city have no idea what it is like to be a have not.

I have learned a long time ago that when you detest your protagonists that much it is really hard to read a novel.

While Duncan and Swanny made me taste bile in the back of my throat I did enjoy Abby's character.  The only thing that kept me reading after a point was trying to figure out who she really was, and how/why she came to live on the garbage island.

I was also very disappointed by how small of a part that the dragons had in most of the book.  The escapades of the poor little rich kids were certainly not what I had envisioned when I realized that dragons were in the sky at all times.  Other than randomly torching buildings for no apparent reason they seemed to play no bigger part than pigeons in the sky.

This is not a book I would quickly recommend, and not one that I'm going to be in any rush to read again.

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

Grief Cottage

Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin

Marcus is eleven when his mother died.  He lived in foster care a short time before going to live with his great-aunt in South Carolina. Aunt Charlotte is an accomplished painter, and a reclusive woman.  She is the one who tells Marcus about Grief Cottage....on the far end of the island.

A boy and his parents disappeared in the cottage during a hurricane, fifty years ago.  Their bodies were never found and the cottage has been empty ever since.

There has been no talk of it being haunted, but being left pretty much on his own by his aunt, Marcus is the first person the ghost of the cottage has revealed himself to.

After Aunt Charlotte injures herself and may never be able to paint again, Marcus finds himself in sort of a courtship with the ghost boy.  He is both intrigued by and terrifyed by him, and wants to find out what happened to him, and his parents, who nobody seems to even remember the names of.
What I thought of Grief Cottage

Grief Cottage is Book 5/60 in my attempt to read 60 books this year.

It is not a typical haunting story.  No things going bump in the night. While Marcus has no doubt the ghost boy is real, as a reader I'm not sure I'm convinced.

Marcus is himself a haunted child.  Haunted by his past, more afraid of his present than he wants to admit, thinking a little of the future yet to come.  As he unpacks his belongings from his previous life, and relives the memories they stir in him the ghost becomes more solid.  I think it might be a solidification of his own uncertainties, since he really has no physical person that he feels he can reach out to.

Meanwhile, its a rough coming of age story, a finding of a surrogate mother, a desperate need of a father figure, and a fear of disappearing entirely manifested in acts of trying to find the identities of the nameless family.

This was a rough and emotional book, which can be taken at face value as a ghost story, or something deeper.

If you read Grief Cottage I would love to know what you think.  Is the ghost real, or not?

If you enjoyed this review you might also like:
Long Black Veil

Lullaby Road

When Ben Jones pulled into the desert with two children and a dog in his truck, I fell in love.

Lullaby Road is the sequel to another novel, The Never Open Desert Diner.  And while you do not have to have read the first novel (which I have not) to read this one I does allude to the first novel quite a bit.

Meanwhile, not having read the previous novel, I got to meet the residents of 117, and the quirky town at the end of the line, and I hope to see more of these people in future novels.

Meanwhile there is our protagonist, Ben Jones, a bad boy often in trouble with the law, but clearly with a heart of gold, taking both the baby of a friend and the child of a stranger on the road with him, just to keep them safe.

But how safe are they really?

This stretch of highway is dangerous. Death happens many times as Ben travels up and down, back and up again throughout the book. A true mystery throughout without the "sugary sweet" happy ending.

I'm looking foward to hunting down a copy of the first novel now as well.

(I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books.  All opinions ar emy own.)

Camp So-and-So

The letters went out in Mid-February.  There were twenty-five letters, to twenty-five girls.  Each letter invited its recipient to spend a week at Camp So-and-So on a merit scholarship.  All twenty-five girls sent their completed applications to an obscure Appalachian town.

Except the town doesn't exist, and nobody has ever heard of Camp So-and-So.

Now Cabin 1 wants to beat the rival camp across the lake, home of the perfect beach.
Cabin 2 is being stalked by a murderer.
Cabin 3 is sent off on a magical quest t break a curse.
Cabin 4 has met their soul mates.
And what exactly happened to Cabin 5 anyway?

What Did I Think about Camp So-and-So

Camp So-and-So is book 3/60 of the 60 books I'm attempting to read this year.
It took me a little time to get into it.

The novel is set up weird.  It is set into "Acts" and each "Act" introduces its own cast of characters on a character page.  Its almost like a playbill.

As we "meet" each cabin we get to know its inhabitants to different degrees.  (The poor girls of Cabin 5 don't even get names!)

Now its one of those books where you are hopping from POV to POV.  This cabin, that cabin, the other cabin and back and forth.  Those can sometimes he hard to follow and keep track, but it was a little easier with this book since each cabin is doing something different.

Now, clearly, this is not your typical Summer Camp book.  There is something wrong, and apparently magical about Camp So-and-So.  Once I got past the weirdness of the set up, and each Cabin began its own trials and tribulations I was absorbed into the novel.

My favorite cabin was Cabin 3 and their quest.  I could have read an entire novel about them alone.
If you like YA fantasy fiction and don't mind a little violence I would recommend this novel to you.

On Turpentine Lane

Book 2/60 - On Turpentine Lane

On Turpentine Lane by Elinor Lipman is a little different than many books I would pick on my own, but is the 2nd book I chose to read in my quest to reach 60 this year.

What is On Turpentine Lane About?

Faith Frankel has returned to her hometown and bought a quirky little house on Turpentine Lane.  Her life is peaceful except that her fiance is on a crowdfunded cross-country walk.  He won't return her calls but has no problem using her credit card.  Then there are the problems at work, her parents problems, oh, and the creepy photos she found in her attic.
As things start to fall apart around her Faith hangs in there as best she can.

What Did I Think?

Its a CUTE book.  Really.

Stories where a female MC randomly buys a house and tries to change the tides of her own life appeal to me. (I reccomend Anybody Any Minute by Julie Mars in that vein)


On Turpentine Lane is not exactly that kind of book.

While she does buy a house on a whim, at first it seems like everything in her life starts going wrong.  Her traveling fiance wont return her calls, her job is in serious trouble, and her parents marriage is on the rocks and there are photos of dead babies in her attic!  Her whole life turns topsy turvy on Turpentine lane.

There is an element of mystery, a good bit of humor, and just a tinge of romance in this novel.
Recommended for a quick and fun read.

All the Little Liars Aurora Teagarden Book 9

Book 1/60 - All the Little Liars

All the Little Liars by Charlaine Harris is book 9 in a series of books featuring Aurora Teagarden.
Newly married Aurora (Roe) has her pregnancy confirmed.  Not long after that her fifteen-year-old brother goes missing.  Worse than that he's not missing alone.  Two of his friends are also gone, as well as an eleven-year-old girl.
During this time she takes a leave from her job at the library, and tries on her own to figure out what happened to her brother and his friends.
To her it seems to keep circling around to a group of bullies at the local middle school.  But how could they be connected?

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries Book #9

I picked this up knowing full well that it was a part of a series.  Anything tagged with "A So-n-So Mystery" usually means it is part of a long series, but that it can also be read as a stand alone novel.
This is the case here too, to an extent.  It gives some backstory on how Roe's brother came to be living with her.  It doesn't tell you exactly why the mild mannered librarian is also a super sleuth (sort of).
I am a fan of Charlaine Harris, if only a newbie fan.  I read and loved all 3 of the Midnight, Texas novels, and the 1st book of the Sookie Stackhouse series, along with one of her short stories in an anthology.  I had a good feeling I'd like this book, and I did.
I was a little taken aback, however, by the random characters that seem to drop in or call for no real reason whatsoever with information that just so happens to be exactly what she needs to figure out the next piece of the puzzle.
Her husband is also too good to be true.  A real, "I'll agree with whatever you decide to do even if it makes no sense" kind of guy.

A Movie Series!

Since All the Little Liars is new novel it has not been adapted into a movie, but 6 other of the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries have.  They star the lovely Candace Cameron Bure, who often acts for Hallmark, and you can get them in one convenient box set.


Charlaine Harris s a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over 30 years.  Aside from the Aurora Teagarden books she also has 3 other Mysteries seires as well as the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels.
The Author is no newcomer to having her books turned into visual works either.  Her Sookie Stackhouse novels were made into an HBO series called True Blood.
More recently her Midnight, Texas novels were made into a series as well (which has not yet been renewed for a 2nd season).

Lola

Lola is the girlfriend of Garcia.  Garcia is the supposed leader of a gang known as the Crenshaw Six.

What nobody really knows is that Lola is actually the brains behind the Gang.  At least that is what the back cover copy tells me.

Drawn to the book because of its cover (I know, I know, never judge a book by the cover) I thought it sounded like an interesting read.

The novel starts off at a cookout.  And I don't think I ever made it out of the first chapter. I picked it up and started reading it a number of times, but kept putting it aside.  Nothing in the opening pages of the book grabbed me and made me want to keep reading.  Men grilling. Women being catty in the kitchen.  Younger girl prowling around the men.

After a couple of weeks of false starts, I give up.

This one goes into my Did Not Finish pile.  Maybe I'll give it another chance in the year ahead.  We'll see.

Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child: Book Review

Has enigmologist Jeremy Logan finally met his match?

Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child is a book I picked up off the NEW shelf on my last library trip.

I've never read anything by Lincoln Child before, though the cover proclaims him to be a New York Times #1 bestselling author.  Speaing of the cover, it is the reason I picked up the book.  It boasts a spooky cabin in the middle of nowhere, similar to the cover of The Hexed.  I guess I had a theme going on during that trip.

Jeremy Logan is an enigmalogist --an investigator who specalizes in analyzing unnatural phenomena.

He travels to an isolated retreat deep in the Adirondacks in an attempt to finish his monograph.  However, he's approached by an old friend on his very first night at the retreat and finds himself investigating a series of deaths in the area, as a favor.

Every time he tries to tell himself he's finished with the investigation he finds some other small tidbit of information that draws him back in.  He has seen a lot of strange things in his investigations, but could there possibly be an actual werewolf hunting the Adirondack Mountains?

What I Liked about Full Wolf Moon

You don't see many werewolf novels.  At least not ones where the werewolf is a killer animal and not some hot guy for the female protag to fall in love with.  I'm a sucker for a good old fashioned monster story.

While most of the book is following the investigation and you don't know who/what the killer is until the climax, I like that you do get to see some of the action from the POV of the victims.  Again, I'm a sucker for a monster story and they are much more fun when you see the monster.

What I Didn't Like About Full Wolf Moon

Its part of a series.  AGAIN.  What is it with series these days?

Again, similar to The Hexed, the story seems to stand alone.  There is mention of  Jeremy's wife, and his losing her.  You don't get that whole story but none of it seems to pertain to the story in this novel.
Other than being book #5 follow Jeremy Logan on his adventures I can't think of much I didn't like about the tale.

Over all I give Full Wolf Moon a 4 out of 5 star rating.  It was a captivating read that kept me turning pages until the end.  Once the momentum kicked in it never slowed down enough to dull the story.  It's certainly not "keep you up at night" horror, but its a good story.  I'd recommend it to anyone who loves horror/thriller reads.

Full Wolf Moon is available on Amazon in Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, audobook and Audio CD formats.

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If you don't want to start in book five, you can pick up any of the first 4 novels below:

Amanda Wakes Up by Alisyn Camerota follows Amanda Gallo on her quest to become a news Anchor.  It is all she has ever wanted from the time she was a teen.  When a media mogul offers her a spot  on the team of a band new cable news network she couldn't have been happier.
FAIR News is all about showing BOTH sides of the story....but is it really?

Launching during an election year, Amanda's stories are a hotbed of hot topics and her new job is leaking into her personal life.  It's affecting her love life, her relationship with her mother, and even the way she looks at the world around her.

It leads up to her chance to break the biggest story of the year, and what is means to her morality vs her lifelong dream.

What I Liked about Amanda Wakes Up

Amanda has a dream, and she chases it.  She truly believes in the Fair and Equal concept.  I like that about her because she reminds me of myself.  Like, you can have your on beliefs and STILL try to see the other side without being violent about it.

I liked the scenes where she was on the show with her co-host and her camera crew, but not talking politics.  I would have like to seen more of her on the job interactions.

What I Didn't Like about Amanda Wakes Up

It took me over a week to get through the first 30 pages of this story.  The opening didn't grab me at all.

There seemed to be a whole lot of TELLING vs SHOWING in the story.  Especially the first few chapters.  Our heroine, Amanda Gallo, was first reporter on a scene of a major even, and did some awesome investigative reporting which is what lands her the job this whole book is about.  But, we SEE none of that.  We are TOLD it happens.  I think I could have gotten into the story so much faster if we had seen her work.

I didn't "connect" with Amanda Gallo.  A book is best when you feel like you are living life with the MC.  I felt like I was being told aobut someone, somewhere, with vague detail, and supposed to feel for them.

Predictability.  I saw 90% of what happened in this book coming, long before it got there.

Politics.  Reading this book was like watching the election all over again. *shudder*

Over all I give Amanda Wakes Up a 3 out of 5 star rating.  Its a book I read.  I wish it had been more about working on an early morning talk show and less about politics, but I  don't regret reading it.  If you want a light fluffy read without a lot of detail, this is totally a book for you.

Amanda Wakes Up is available on amazon in Kindle, Hardcover and Audio though audible.
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Not sure you want to read this? See my other book reviews to find something you might like better.
(Disclaimer: I received a copy of Amanda Wakes Up from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.)

The Hexed by Heather Graham

Available on amazon.

I picked up The Hexed by Heather Graham on one of my library trips.  I grabbed it off the shelf because of the cover (yes, I judge books by their covers) and tossed it in my take home bag because the back cover piqued my interest.

Devin Lyle inherited her great-aunts cabin, when suddenly a woman is murdered nearby.

Craig Rockwell is a new member of a special FBI team known as The Krewe of Hunters.  They are paranormal investigators.  The recently discovered body is very similar to one he found int he woods as a teen.
Devin and Agent Rockwell, of course, start to fall for each other as the case progresses. But will they get to the bottom of the case before Devin becomes the next victim?

It turns out that The Hexed is the 13th book in a series of 20.  Normally I hate picking up a book and finding out its part of a series.  This time it didn't bother me.  There was enough back-story of the characters that you didn't feel like you missed anything, and its not part of a continuous series where you have to have read everything before and everything after to get the complete story.

What I Liked About The Hexed

I liked that it was a stand alone novel instead of me having to worry about getting my hands on the whole series to know what I was reading about.

Of course I liked the paranormal aspect of The Hexed.  FBI agents who not only see but also can communicate with ghosts!  What's not to like?

I liked that the romance between Devin and "Rocky" didn't take over the whole book.  It was about them finding the killer, not about their mad love affair.

I liked "Crazy" great-aunt Mina, even though she didn't really add much to the story.

I liked that Devin inherited a raven from her Aunt to go along with the cottage instead of a cat.  Cats are so overdone.

What I Didn't Like

There are two main arguments throughout The Hexed that annoyed me.

One was the "It looks like this murder is connected to Wicca." vs "Wiccans don't kill!" argument.  This popped up many times throughout the novel.  Usually it came to light when two people, who are both open-minded and agree on the second point, kept talking in circles about it.  Certain aspects of the murders clearly pointed towards witchcraft, but any mention of it brought out a "Wiccan's don't kill" argument.

The second was the "It can't be one of my friends, it must be one of your's!" argument.  Something they might have said once and gotten over, but not after every single interview.

The Verdict

3 out of 5 stars

I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either.  It took a couple of tries for me to get into the story, and the 2 annoying arguments above kept making me set it aside.  I may go on to read more of the series, but I may not and won't be telling ayone "You HAVE to read this!"

If you do want to give it a try The Hexed by Heather Graham is available on amazon in Kindle, Audio and Paperback forms.

Or, if you're rather start from the beginning you can check out Phantom Evil: Book 1 in the Krewe of Hunters series.

God Gave us Family

Little Pup is on his way to a family reuinion with his mom and dad.

On the way he asks why there is only one kid in his family but other families have lots of kids.  Papa says that God gives families and every family is different.

While rowing in a boat they pass different families.  The bear famiy has an adopted child.  Th goose family has a single mom most of the time.  One child lives with their grandparents.

Then Little Pup learns that the rest of their pack are family too, even if they are not related to us.  And he also learns that family is still family, even when they are annoying.

In the end they get to the reunion and Little Pup plays with his cousins and pack members.

It is a cute book, from the "God Gave Us...." series of books.  The most popular which I think as God Gave Us You.


The artwork was cute and it would make a great addition to any Christian family's book collection.

I will say that none of the families in the book have parents who are same sex.  Of course since this is a Christian book we couldn't really expect them to include that facet of life could we?

There are also no families without children, so you have to have a child to be a family?

I received my copy of God Gave us Family though Blogging for Books in exchange for an hontest review.  Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

If you would like your on copy it is on Amazon in Kindle or Hardcover.

Draw 50 Sea Creatures Step by Step

Draw 50 Sea Creatures
The Step-by-step Way to Draw
Fish, Sharks, Mollusks, Dolphins and More!

Available on Amazon

Draw 50 Sea Creatures is a simple book on, you guessed it, how to draw sea creatures!

The only equipment you'll need is a medium or soft pencil, paper to draw on, and a kneaded eraser.

There is not a lot of written content in the book.  There is a letter to the reader giving you just a handful of tips on how to use this book to improve your drawing.

There is also a short letter to teachers on why that even though freedom of self expression is important, its also important for young artists to learn how to do things step by step as well.

From there it is just page after page of how to Draw 50 Sea Creatures.  Most of the creatures break it down into 6 steps.  A couple have 8 steps drawn for you to follow.  Even with 8 steps, some of the more detailed animals have several details are added in one step.

To me this makes this book more suitable for someone with some drawing talent as opposed to an absolute beginner. I'm not a very talented artist.  Here are 2 animals I drew from the book. 

The anemone was pretty easy, but you can see that the step by step didn't do much for me with the seahorse.



Lee J. Ames, the artist behind the Draw 50 series has been drawing for most of his life.  His first job was for the Walt Disney Studios when he was 18.  Since then he has led a career as an advertising artist, fine artist, cartoonist, designer, animation in-betweener, illustrator, and as an artist-in residence at Doubleday. 

It is his minimalist approach to teaching drawing that makes the 26 books of the Draw 50 series such a success.

(Disclaimer:  This book was received from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and comments... and bad seahorse drawings ...are my own.)

Ninth City Burning

An alien race had come to make Earth theirs.  The war has raged for five centuries.  It was nearly the end of the world.

Growing up in this shattered environment isn't easy for anyone.  Some, like Jax, grew up in an elite military academy, training for battle.  Others, like Naomi, grew up nomadic roaming the wilds of a ruined Earth, it means a daily fight for survival.

When paths cross Jax and Naomi, along with other fighters and survivors must find a way to turn back the invasion.  Otherwise their home will finally be completely destroyed.

Ninth City Burning does the thing that so many books do these days that I hate.  It hops back and forth from different POV.  Starting out with different characters in different cities who all eventually converge.  

Frankly I would have like to have seen more of Naomi's story.  I was annoyed that the tale around her and her tribe converged so quickly with the high-tech society.  SO I guess I would have lieked a post apocalyptic survival story instead of a Sci-fi tale.

The overall story was interesting.  How the world handled a multi-year inter-dimensional war.  The underlying theme of "OMG YOU'RE TOO YOUNG FOR WAR, but we're gonna make you do it anyway" got to be really annoying after a while.  Especially since this is a thick 500+ page read.

I could see Ninth City Burning making a big-budget big screen movie one day, maybe, but it didn't really make me want to change my favorite reading genre to Sci-fi.

I did get this book for free from blogging for books, but all thoughts and opinions are mine.

Home on the Range Book Review

Available on Amazon

Nick Stafford has been working on his family's ranch, trying to proove he is the "good son."  Despite a strong commitment to be a better husband, father and ranch manager than his father was, Nick has found himself a single father.  One of his daughters is having trouble in school and he has to think past his Stafford stuborness and do what is best for his girls.

Dr. Elsa Andreas has suffered her own tragedy.  One that caused her to abandon her family practice and hide in a dark corner of Gray's Glen.  Her sister, the school principal, convinced her to come out of hiding to help the Stafford girls.

Nick is smitten with Elsa, and she with he, but they both agree to put the girls first.  Can Nick put aside his stuborn side, or will Elsa's hidden secret keep them apart despite both of them wishing the best for the girls?

Home on the Range is the 2nd book in the Double S Ranch series.  (Books 1 and 3 follow the other two Stafford brothers.)  It is a Fictional Christian Romance.

Normally I don't read or enjoy romance novels, but I chose to read this one because of the cover art, of a little girl hanging on to her fathers leg.

Reading Home on the Range I was in love with the charactger of Dr. Elsa.  I loved her Hobbit hole in the woods.  I loved her eccentric parrot.  I loved how much she loved Nick's daughters.  Her fear and distrust in certain people felt right with me

This quote from another chacrater in the book stuck with me:

"We cannot blame God for the evils of people.  We are inclined to sin.  But if each of us maes her corner of the world as sweet and good as she can, she blesses many, unseen."

In a not entirley unexpeted twist, the girls mother shows up.  One that happened I kept expeting things to be done and said that never were.  I was happy that the book wasn't so predictible that I knew what would happen before it did.

If you like a light Romance with Christian undertones I would recommend you read Home on the Range. I enjoyed it enough to read it in a couple of days.  However I didn't enjoy it enough to be tempted to check out the other books in the series.  I guess its just not my genre.

If you are interested in checking it out, Home on the Range  is available in several formats on amazon, along with the rest of the series.


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I received my copy of Tell Me How This Ends Well for free from Blogging For Books. All opinions are my own.

Tell Me How This Ends Well

Set in the future (slightly, the year is 2022), Tell Me How This Ends Well features each of the three Jacobson children.

Mo, Edith, Jacob, along with their parents have all gathered together for Passover at Mo's home.  Their mother is very ill, and this might be their last year together.

For the sake of their mother, the children have decided to kill their father.

Throughout the book, you get to see through the eyes of each of the siblings.  We see their father as a raging tyrant from childhood onward.  More than once we see him trying to harm or even kill his own children.

What you don't see much of is their mother.  Rarely does she show up in the backstory and the result of that is that you don't much care for her.  At least I didn't.  Why should I care if they kill their father for her?  She is almost a non-entity.

Meanwhile, the narrators are also rather unlikeable.  Jacob is whiny, Mo is egocentric and materialistic, and I'm pretty sure Edith has some sort of dangerous personality disorder.

Sure, Julian Jacobson is a clearly loathsome character, but the children and wife don't have a lot going for them.

I put the novel down several times to read other books in between.  It wasn't bad enough to give up on entirely as I have other books (see A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing) but it didn't grab me.

Meanwhile, in the distant future of 2022, the world has become very anti-Semitic (much like our current anti-Muslim world view).  Other than the fact that Jacob's boyfriend is German I don't see where it added to the story at all.  Enid ran into a couple of unpleasant people, and suicide bombings are mentioned throughout the book, but overall it played no part in the larger story aside from the very end which could have been re-written to keep from having all the other pointless moments from the rest of the book.

Unfortunately, overall, I don't see myself recommending this book to anyone.  If you want to give it a try anyway, Tell Me How This Ends Well is available in multiple formats on Amazon.

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I received my copy of Tell Me How This Ends Well for free from Blogging For Books. All opinions are my own.