Care for a pillow fight anyone? Do you sometimes wish you had more time to enjoy your family, to have real adventures where everyone participated and bonded together? Well, now you can. In his book 52 Uncommon Family Adventures: Simple and Creative Ideas for Making Lifelong Memories with introduction by Gary Chapman, Randy Southern shows us how we can switch remove all the distractions that hinder us from spending quality time with our loved ones.

Book Description:

Connect with your family without breaking the bank.

When you dreamed of having a family you pictured outings, adventures, laughing around the kitchen table. But then the kids actually came and most of the time you’re too busy trying to keep up to figure out how to create a magical, screen-free environment where everyone feels loved, is having fun, and can connect. That’s why 52 Uncommon Family Adventures was written, it helps you do just that, without all the hassle and stress.

Whether it’s a family pillow fight, a lip-sync competition, or Toilet Paper Olympics, give your family the gift of lifelong memories while having fun, connecting spiritually, and speaking each other’s love languages. Enjoy all the benefits of the quality time you dreamed of without all the pressure of advanced planning.

Put down the phones, turn off the TV, and start making some memories together today.

Purchase Link:  Pick up your life-saving copy of fun at:  https://amzn.to/2SyNfgM

But don’t just take my word for it, have a look yourself at just how easy , FUN, and helpful this book is: https://www.moodypublishers.com/mpimages/Marketing/WEB%20Resources/ProductExcerpts/9780802419392-TOC-CH1-3.pdf  

Join the giveaway here:
https://www.blessedfreebies.com/52-uncommon-family-adventures.html

I am still in a state of euphoria following the royal wedding on Saturday, which is why I’m so late writing this post today. I’ve been viewing all the stunning photos splashed all over the internet and reading the comments—some of which are downright, Pulitzer-prize worthy—and berating myself for not doing some work.

So, here goes. This post is intended for my fellow authors, but readers are welcome to peep over their shoulders to see the reason for some terrible reviews you see on Amazon. When agents and editors reject our work, they usually say that the fault is not with our writing. The story is just not the right fit for them. Yeah, right. And I’m the Duchess of Sussex.

Sometimes, the writing is bad, very bad. Typos, grammatical errors, misspellings, you name it, it’s there. Recently, I gave a bad review to a book that was given me in exchange for an honest review, and, truth be told, it contained none of those flaws mentioned above. In fact, the prose was beautiful. Descriptive passages to die for. But that’s where it ended for me. Even though the book belonged to a genre I don’t read, I was prepared to give it a shot, but try as I did, I couldn’t connect with the protagonist, couldn’t understand her motive, and most of the time I couldn’t understand what was taking place. It was a very difficult read.

I felt badly about giving such a poor rating, but I had to write my honest impression. I was happy to see that some other reviewers gave the book four stars, but it just didn’t work for me. So, the next time you get a poor rating, take it with a pinch of salt, as we say. Maybe it wasn’t the right choice for the reviewer, or she was distracted by a wedding—hers or someone else’s.

You can still pick up a copy of Coming Out of Egypt, book 1 of the Egypt series for just 99c. and In the Wilderness for $2.99. If you haven’t joined this newsletter, you are missing out on special offers. So, please sign up on the form below. And look out for In the Promised Land, the third and final book in the series, soon to be on preorder.

Enjoy the video

My Review
A journey into nostalgia

If you could put your hands on copies of books you enjoyed as a child, would you reread them? Better still, if you could visit some of the settings for those books, would you? This is exactly what Nancy McCabe did when in 2007 she took her nine-year-old daughter with her on a trip that to those places. Since I love books as well as travel, I grabbed the chance to read and review Nancy McCabe’s From Little Houses to Little Women. I was not disappointed.

In this beautifully-written memoir, McCabe seamlessly compares her impressions of the Little House books and others she read as a child with her impressions of them as an adult while taking us on a journey of hundred-degree days, bugs, ticks and endless acres of prairie grass to retrace the footsteps of the books she grew up with. In doing so, McCabe debunks a lot of the myths that the average reader may have accepted as fact — that the Osage Indians simply left the land for the white settlers, and that Ma insisted that Laura wore sunbonnets, not as a fashion statement, but to prevent her from becoming “brown as Indians.”

McCabe also gives the reader glimpses into her childhood and how the books she read shaped her life and resulted in her becoming a writer. But she doesn’t stop there. Drawing upon references to passages in the books, McCabe gives her candid views on religion, politics, friendship and family relationships.

Although I found the very detailed accounts of the journey tedious at times, I kept on reading because in the midst of it would often spring up some piece of information that I found startling or relevant. I recommend this book to book lovers everywhere, especially those familiar with the books McCabe writes about and to those who would like to satisfy their nostalgic longing again and again. I have given this book four stars.

My review:

Finding Leda is the story of a young college student trying to navigate the maze of college life and at the same time find her true self. She has made a lot of mistakes, (which young person doesn’t?) getting pregnant at fourteen, hooking up with the wrong guy, and now seems anxious not to repeat those mistakes.

I can’t say the novel has much of a plot. It’s the typical self-discovery-coming-of-age type of story, but I like the way Amman juxtaposes the successes Leda has discovering science with the progress she makes experimenting on her true self. Most of the novel reads like journal entries, and I think this style does well to give us a clear picture of what is going on in Leda’s head. The references to Italian culture help to add authenticity and depth to the story.

I recommend this novel to readers of YA and NA novels and have given it four stars.

I’m happy to announce that In the Wilderness, Book 2 of the Egypt trilogy, is on tour this week, starting today Oct. 2 until Friday Oct. 6. This is a virtual book tour that will make stops at other book blogs in order to garner exposure and reviews. This is a great opportunity for those of you who have not yet purchased the book to learn more about it and hear what others think. At the end of the tour, I will be giving away a signed copy of the first book, Coming Out of Egypt.

Don’t miss out.

You can follow the tour at the sites listed below where you’ll have a chance to participate in the giveaway.

On A Reading Bender – Oct. 2

The Indie Express   – Oct. 3

Texas Book Nook   – Oct. 4

Momma and Her Stories  – Oct 5

All Things Bookaholic – Oct 6

RABT Book Tours Reviews – wrap up

For those of you who still don’t know what In the Wilderness is all about, here’s a short blurb to whet your appetite:

In The Wilderness – Book 2

Tortured by guilt over killing her father, a crime for which she was never punished, Marva Garcia longs to confide in someone.  But who? Cicely, her former teacher-turned-surrogate – mother, is soon to marry the detective who suspects Marva of murdering her father, and she is too ashamed to confide in her friend Jason who has a romantic interest in her. The only person who knows what she did is her younger sister June whom she was trying to protect when the crime occurred. But June insists they keep quiet about it to avoid Marva being thrown into prison.

Certain that the police will one day arrest her, Marva sees suicide as her only option. But before she can carry out her carefully-laid plans, something terrible happens – something that uncovers her closely guarded secret and leaves her groping in the wilderness. Will Marva now be punished for her crime, or will she receive forgiveness and understanding?

Sign up for my blog on the form below and you will receive updates on my books, giveaways and other author events.

I am pleased to present this review of Pintip Dunn’s new YA fiction Girl on the Verge. This post is part of a blog tour that also includes an exciting giveaway ending June 8th.  You may follow the tour and participate at other stops by clicking on this link: (http://xpressobooktours.com/2017/03/14/tour-sign-up-girl-on-the-verge-by-pintip-dunn/)

Please read my review below.