The Guy Next Door by Kate Palmer

The Guy Next Door by Kate Palmer

On the surface, Eva Black's life seems practically perfect. The small-town kindergarten teacher is set to wed ambitious lawyer Sean Langley, and their plans for a dream wedding are well underway. Eva accepts that she will soon live life in the spotlight as a member of the prestigious Langley family, but can she overlook her fiance's tendency to dominate the details of her life and push the limits of her standards?

Mere weeks before the wedding, Eva is thrown into a traumatic, life-changing event that changes her view of family commitment and creates a sharp contrast between her ideals and Sean's. With her engagement to Sean in jeopardy, Eva finds herself relying on the support and encouragement of Peter, her kind and attentive next-door neighbor. Faced with a choice between her penitent fiance and the increasingly mysterious Peter, Eva is unprepared for the consequences—and peril—that come with her decision. (amazon summary)

I really liked the way the author wrote the two love interests in The Guy Next Door. Sean was a decent smart guy that Eva could have built a life with. I like that he and Eva disagreed, but  that he never really turns evil. He kind of is a jerk when Eva adopts her baby niece Melody, as he had a different opinion about children than she does, but he doesn’t ever turn into evil guy. I like how the author shows the layers of their relationship to the reader so you can see the strengths as well as the weaknesses of it so the reader finds it believable that they break up without being cliche or too melodramatic.

I found it refreshing that Peter wasn’t the typical cookie cutter Mormon love interest. He’s got long hair, a goatee, and a suspicious job. I liked how the author showed how comfortable Eva felt around him and found their love story to be super sweet. Though, I found it a bit unbelievable that Eva wasn’t more suspicious about his job, and thought that should have been less of a big reveal, as I felt it was obvious. Perhaps there could have been some hints as to non-disclosure contracts and all that to give Peter more of a reason to stay silent about his “consulting business.”  I just felt like he should have given her a more solid reason as to why he wouldn't discuss his work.

Other than that I was sad that the novel was over. I wanted to read more about Peter and Eva and the special relationship that was blooming between them. I wanted to discover if they really found one another as compatible as they first thought, and how Peter’s job turned out.

Overall, I really liked this unique romantic suspense novel that portrayed unique and layered relationships. I am glad that I had the opportunity to participate in the blog tour and receive a e-copy for review.  

As part of the tour, Kate is generously offering a grand prize giveaway of a copy of The Guy Next Door plus Junior Mints (Eva’s favorite candy), and a copy Eva’s lemon chicken recipe.

To enter to win these prizes, simply fill out the Rafflecopter form provided. (Each tour stop will have the same Rafflecopter form)

• Open from October 2 to November 2.
• Must be 13+ years of age to enter
• US mailing addresses only

Earn entries by doing any/all of the following:

• Leaving a blog post comment
• Liking Kate’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KatePalmerAuthor)
• Tweeting about the giveaway (once per day)
• Subscribing to Kate’s blog (http://www.katrinapalmer.com/)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

LDSPBP: Cambria Evans

 

Cambira Evans is an illustrator and designer that lives in New York. She went to school in graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design. While there she took a class focused on illustrating children's books. She completed a mock up of Martha Moth Makes Socks and had to submit it to a panel of editors for her project assignment. Shortly after that she obtained an agent and a book deal for her first book.

Author's Website: http://cambriaevans.com

Martha Moth Makes Socks

This simple little story is about a very hungry moth, who is planning a birthday dinner.  Going shopping preparing food while you’re hungry is a very bad ideas because you may eat all the food before the guests arrive!

I thought this little story a bit odd. It is not every day that you think about moths cooking up your sweater on the stove for dinner, but the illustrations are fun and cheerful. The story is unique and cute.

 

Bone Soup

This is a story about Finnigin the skeleton, who has a reputation for eating a bit too much at parties. So when the witch flies by and realizes Finnigin is headed for her town she warns everyone she meets. Everyone agrees to hide away their food, and Finnigin arrives to a non-existent Halloween feast.  Though, he is rebuffed by the townspeople Finnigin has a plan, and starts a bone soup. Pretty soon the witch, beast, zombies, mummy and werewolf have all decided to put their share into the soup. There is a true Halloween feast for everyone.

I really enjoyed this little retelling of bone soup Halloween style. The art work is really interesting and distinct. I love how the author puts the text and scenes into frames to give the text a graphic novel feel. It makes the story feel very sharp and organized. I am totally going to remember this one for when Halloween festivities come around.  I found Finnigin to be a clever and likable little ghoul.

 

Witch Born by Amber Argyle

Witch Born by Amber Argyle

Brusenna thought it was finished.

She defeated the Dark Witch, saving the Haven Witches from imprisonment and death. She found love and a place to belong.

She was wrong.

Haven is not the sanctuary it appears to be. Even love is in danger of slipping away like water through cupped hands.

Some things can't be saved.

A new threat merges with the old as the Witches’ dark history begins to catch up with them. Only Brusenna knows the extent of the danger and how to stop it, though doing so might cost her everything.

Including her life.

Will Brusenna be required to make the ultimate sacrifice? (Summary from Author’s Website)

This sequel to Witch Song picks up with Brusenna in Haven learning all the things she needs to know about being a witch. As an apprentice, she gets through classes fairly well though she has to deal with how her teachers and classmates treat her because her song has become so very strong that it does impossible things.  They speak of her being creator touched, but as Brusenna tries to find out what that means she discovers another coven of witches,  who desire to destroy their haven.

I found that I really got caught up in this book. I remember having a few nitpicks about the first book in this series, but I found that I enjoyed Witch Born a lot more. The plot felt more original, the characters more natural, and there was some really cool world building in this installment. So I really enjoyed this read and felt like the author had really hit her stride in presenting the characters and the world set up around them. I would enjoy reading a sequel, but I am not quite sure where the author would take the characters. I just know that at the end of the story I would have had a lot of fun exploring the new setting the author created for the witches to live in and there wasn’t a whole lot of time to do that. 

Author's Website
Book avaliable as Paperback or ebook .

LDSPBP: Four Halloween Stories

Get into the Halloween Spirit with picture books written by LDS authors.

Michael O. Tunnell's Halloween Pie

Don't go eating a witches pie. It may be cursed. Yummy recipe included.

Cambria Evans Bone Soup

The retelling of a classic fable with a creepy twist.

Skeleton Cat by Kristyn Crow

A dancing cat grooves in the graveyard

Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin by Rick Walton

A creepy pumpkin with a wicked wicked smile. It wants to eat you and just keeps coming back.

 

Summer Project: Black and White picture books

My new niece was born this summer, and I thought about what I would have liked to have when Sera was just a newborn. The answer was some simple black and white picture books. I did not know that black and white images were most suitable for newborn eyes until I had a one week year old squalling child in my arms. Not quite the best time to run out to the bookstore and pick up some books.

So, this summer I made a few in honor of my new niece, and for something to share with the rest of my squalling adorable children that we hope will join our family. I thought quite some time about submitting these to traditional publishers. Yet, I know that there was little chance of them finding success any time soon. I could spend a solid ten years subbing children’s book manuscripts and have nothing for it but an empty pocket book and hours of wasted time. Time I could spend creating more things. So, though, the prospect of these selling very well in a digital format is very slim. It is still nice to have the illusion that I have been able to share these creations with others. I had a lot of fun making these little books, and I hope a few more people than I have fun reading them while curled up with their small, wobbly-headed, squinty eyed newborns. I hope when those wobbly headed ones get older their blank stares will turn to smiles when they hear mom or dad making ridiculous nonsensical sounds. Kaaarooo!

You can download Bird Speak ,Stellar Heroes , and Vehicles Sound in ebook format from amazon or smashwords. Enjoy.  
 

 

Castles in the Sand by E.M. Tippetts

Castles in the Sand by E.M. Tippetts

“Madison Lukas knows her place in the world. She's not pretty, not interesting, and therefore easy to forget.

John Britton has been praying for fifteen years to find the sister he lost in his parents' divorce. She is beautiful, talented, and makes kindness a fine art.

When John and Madison cross paths, he recognizes her at once, but Madison is certain that he's got it all wrong. Even if she is his long-lost sister, she can't possibly be the exceptional, amazing girl he thinks she is, can she?” (summary from Amazon)

 

I found the premise of this book so interesting at first glance. A missionary finds his long lost sister while on his mission. Madison doesn’t even know she has family other than her mother who is so obsessed with her pottery that she doesn’t have time for Madison at all.

 

Yet, her mother confirms it. John Britton is indeed her long lost brother and now that he has found her he is not going to let her go. Though Madison is annoyed at first by his emails and messages she comes to rely on his encouraging words and in them she finds the strength to make better decisions for herself. As Madison is not Mormon she makes decisions that aren’t really all that pretty, especially when she doesn’t consider herself worth all that much, but I was happy to read about how she finds the strength to stand up for herself.

 

Once again I loved the way E.M. Tippets gives each character in her novel such honest weaknesses. Even her picture perfect Mormon characters feel like real people with such human flaws. Yet, her characters are not evil or bad people--just real. It is so refreshing to read about real, complex, and deep characters in any genre this days and Tippets does it with real skill. 

E.M. Tippetts Website

 

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LDSPBP: Trudy Harris

Trudy Harris write pictures books that are often based off of the cirriculum that she teaches to the children in her classroom. She likes to incorporate books into her lesson plans. You can learn more about her at her author page at amazon.com. 

Splitting the Herd: A corral of Odds and Evens

This story cute little love story about two farmers whose pastures are directly across from each other illustrates the math concept of odds and Evens.

Every so often Miss Emma’s cows wander into cowboy Kirby’s pasture and they have to split them up again. Cowboy Kirby knows just how to split them evenly he counts all the cows up and splits them into odds and evens. Emma takes the even numbered cows and Kirby takes the odd numbered cows, but something is wrong the math just doesn’t add up.

So they meet together to go over the problem over cake in the evenings only they spend so much time talking about other interesting topics that the problem solving gets delayed.  You’ll have to read the book to solve this interesting math puzzle.

Tally Cat Keeps Track by Trudy Harris

So the funny story about this picture book is that I realized after reading the bios at the end that my cousin is married to the illustrator. Crazy huh? Then I went back through the illustrations and found all sorts of clues on the tin cans. The family name is drawn on the tin cans and there are the acronyms BYU and CTR. (Brigham Young University, and Choose the Right) So, yeah I find it ironic that I picked up this book at random and it ended up being produced by someone I knew. Though, I have never met Trudy Harris, who is Andrew’s(the illustrators) mother. I’ve only met him at random family functions as my cousin’s husband. My brother Paul also went to Art Center, a very highly respected art school in California. So that was the clue that tipped me off.

This book tells the story of an Alley cat named Tally, who is always keeping track of how he measures up to everyone around him in competitions with tally marks. Well, this talent come in handy when he get into a spot of trouble. He knows just who to ask for help. This book helps younger reader to recognize and learn how to use tally markes.

The Clock Struck One: a time telling tale

I think this one was one of my favorites it is an expansion of the traditional nursery rhyme. The mouse runs up the clock at one but when it strikes two the cat leaps up to chase him. So goes the rest of this charming picture book as the hours pass the chase continues all throughout the town.

The words have the original nursery rhyme feel, but author adds her own originality to it and so this is a delightful read.

20 Hungry Piggies a number book

Also an extended tale loosely related to a nursery rhyme. This goes through how 20 piggies are getting ready for a barbeque. They are having great fun until a big wolf shows up and threatens to eat them all. The 20 piggies thwart him in the quest to obtain their food.  This one is cute and funny, and helps kids review numbers one through twenty.

 

 Up Bear, Down Bear

This is a short little board book that tries to convey the idea of up and down. A little girl is playing with her bear by throwing it up and catching it when it comes down, but it gets stuck up in a tree.  How will the little girl get her bear back? A very interesting read as most or the story is told with illustrations and the only words are up, down, and bear. My little girl loved to read this one.

Wow, It’s a Cow

This is a fun farm animal themed pop-up book.  The farmer is giving you good advice on how to find his cow by describing just how it doesn’t look. The animal rolling around in the muck and calling “oink, oink” is obviously not a cow and is a pig. Just pull up the flap and you will see a pig enjoying his pail of delicious slop. Other animals we meet include a horse, duck, bird, sheep, and at long last the famous cow.

 

Pattern Fish
A delightful under the sea romp intended to teach children about patterns. Each page features a different sea creature that has an accompanying patterned rhyme that illustrates how it looks or moves in the sea. For example, a blow fish goes bubble-bubble-pop as it swims along in the water. The accompanying art emphasizes the patterns in the text. Several pages at the end of the book are dedicated to describing different types of patterns and how we keep track of them.

Say Something Perico

I found this book to be funny because the bird, Perico, speaks Spanish. He keeps getting matched up with owners that misunderstand his Spanish words for English ones. Example one interested pet owner ask how he is doing. Perico responds, "Mal." This leads every to believe that Perico wants to go to the mall. Will Perico ever find an owner that can actually understand him? A clever bilingual book that will amuse many a reader.

Full Bibilography:
100 DAYS OF SCHOOL
PATTERN FISH
PATTERN BUGS
TWENTY HUNGRY PIGGIES
UP BEAR, DOWN BEAR
OVER, UNDER, IN AND OUCH!
SPLITTING THE HERD: A CORRAL OF ODDS AND EVENS
SAY SOMETHING, PERICO
THE ROYAL TREASURE MEASURE (2012)
THE CLOCK STRUCK ONE
WOW! IT'S A COW
TALLY CAT KEEPS TRACK
JENNY FOUND A PENNY

Summer Book Trek Wrap-up

I had a lot of fun participating in the Summer Book Trek and I read every book on my reading list got a few reviews up too.

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Freshman for President by Ally Condie
The Hidden Branch by G.G. Vandagriff
Paige by Annette Lyon

That leaves Castles on the Sand by Emily Mah Tippetts which I did read during the Trek period, but haven't written a review for yet. Finally,  Before I Say Goodbye I didn't read until the second week of September. So, I feel like I did a pretty good job on this trek and it doesn't hurt that I won several prizes.

Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand by Carla Kelly

Mrs. Drew Plays her Hand by Carla Kelly

Roxanna Drew is left a very poor widow after her sick husband dies. Her Brother-in-law tries to make arrangements to care for her and her two daughters, but make it clear that those arrangements will include his unwanted attentions. Sickened, Roxanna begs the caretaker at a nearby estate to stay in a small cottage that is falling apart.

The owner, a military man named Lord Winn has been absent from the property from years being too busy waging war for the king to visit the property. Now that Napoleon has been defeated he must travel visit all his properties and see to their maintenance  or sell them off.  He must impose upon the hospitality of Mrs. Drew when he arrives at his property too late to make contact with his steward. He falls in love not only with Mrs. Drew but her children and jumps at the chance to marry her to protect her from the machinations of her brother-in-law.

I enjoyed reading about Roxanne and her children. I loved how the author made the children such charming characters in the story, and you can see why Lord Winn loved them. Roxanne was also a warm and loving character, but also very strong. I really liked that about her.  I sometimes found Lord Winn to be a bit of a jerk on occasion, but I found him funny also. I loved how he would make jokes about being in the military and taught the girls to wager.  One thing about the end that I found a bit beyond belief was how easily they made amends with Mr. Drew, Roxanne’s brother-in-law. I was really surprised that Roxanne would allow her daughter to stay in his house, under his care alone, after the way he acted toward her. I would worry for my daughter’s safety, and thought the main characters were pretty dumb in how they dealt with that situation.   

Despite that I really enjoyed this read and found the characters solid and entertaining, and the setting fun. For those fans of regency romance this one is sure to please.

 

Variant by Robison Wells

Variant by Robison Wells

Variant has been on my to read list for quite a while and I got as far as checking it out at the library and then returning it unread when it was due. It however was consumed by my husband and highly recommended, which only served to make me want to read it more. Then I discovered that it went on sale for $2.99 on the kindle. I snatched that book right up and finished reading it by the end of the week. And I really liked it a lot. The main character Benson Fischer is a foster care kid wishing for a new life, a new chance, and new school. He applies and gets a scholarship for Maxfield Academy, a place he is excited to be until he arrives and discovers that everyone inside is trapped.

I love how strong Benson’s character is and how realistically he responds to the situation he is placed into, but he remains unwilling to accept the facts of the situation and keeps trying to find the answers. When he does discover the truth behind Maxfield his stay there turns into a struggle for survival and there is no one he can trust.  This one kept me on the edge of my seat and turning pages until the very end. I loved how each twist and turn of the plot only raised the stakes higher and how interesting the dynamics got between all the characters, especially when all of them didn’t know who they should trust. I am way excited for the sequel in October because the ending was perfect. Just enough information to make the story feel satisfying, to feel like you had learned a little about what was happening, but not enough to give away the whole creepy picture that is just waiting to be revealed.  

Visit Robison Wells Website