Baby Girl by Bette Lee Crosby

Baby Girl
by Bette Lee Crosby


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Reviewed For +Readers' Favorite 


Happily ever after is never as easy as the fairy tales make it out to be, and falling in love doesn't mean you have found your ending. Cheryl Ann wants her happily ever after, and she has a plan, to get out of where she is, go to college and be somebody. Even the best laid plans don't go the way you want, when Cheryl Ann's mama refuses to get on board with the dream, she must make some hard choices. When things are going well, and unexpected pregnancy forces her to make choices she never imagined, and those choices lead to twists in her path that she never saw coming. Baby Girl is the story of Cheryl Ann's life and triumph. She has her pitfalls and bumps in the road, but she is determined to make something of herself, better than what she had growing up. Author Bette Lee Crosby weaves this story together in a manner that feels like a huge patchwork quilt. All the pieces and tears in Cheryl Ann's life come together to make something beautiful.

Baby Girl will have you crying along with Cheryl Ann as she makes hard choices, cheering as things go right, and wanting her to find that true love, once in a lifetime kind of love. Author Bette Lee Crosby treats each part of Cheryl Ann's story with respect and dignity, never making any choice or decision feel shameful and building it into a heartfelt story. There are social issues in this book, yet the author deals with them in Cheryl's mindset and they come across as heartfelt and genuine. Even though this a story about Cheryl Ann, from her teens on up through life, I feel this story is a great read for all ages, including teenagers.

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A Gift of Ghosts (Tassamara, #1) by Sarah Wynde

A Gift of Ghosts (Tassamara, #1) 
by Sarah Wynde


My rating: 4.9 of 5 stars

**If you have been reading me long you know that I rarely give 5's. To me a 5 is perfect, and no book can really be perfect, right, but it can come darn close. This was one of those!!**


This book has been sitting on my reading iPad forever it seems. I downloaded it one time when it was offered for free on Amazon and it has just sat there waiting on me to get the time to read it.

Arika Malone is a scientist, but she also see's ghosts, which has done nothing but cause problems for her. Her father was a science man, told her they were just energy, to ignore them so she tries to and never learns anything about them. One paragraph in a research paper that she mistakenly mentioned spirit energy in and the college she was teaching at all but told her that she was done. Arika was on the hunt for a new job, and fast when an odd offer came.

Zane Latimer is in charge of interviewing the people his father, Max is having brought in for this "job". He sets up in a fake boring office and waits, but Arika is not what he expected, and Zane is not what Arika expected, he is gorgeous but he seems to have no clue and is mysterious. When he hires her immediately for a two-year contract and tells her she can research all she wants, she is even more confused.

Soon Arika realizes that everyone in Tassamara is "different", she can see and talk to ghosts, a lady on the street can read aura's and no one thinks anything about this. She is so used to having to hide her ability, to treat it like a curse that she doesn't understand these people or town that treats it as normal, or as a gift.

Arika makes friends with the teen-age ghost in her rental car, then the ghosts living in her rental house and slowly she starts to come to terms with her ability, but is it not until she accompanies Zane on an abducted child case that she learns things that complete turn her beliefs upside down! Now what is she going to do?

This is a wonderful introduction to the town of Tassamara, as this is dubbed to be the first book in the series. We meet Arika and feel her confusion as she meet the people of the town, her disbelief that a place like this can exist. We get a beginning introduction to the Latimer family and their homegrown company, General Directions. Zane in the younger son, and manages the day-to-day stuff at the office. We learn bits and pieces of the rest of the family, just enough for us to anticipate each members upcoming book.

Now that I have read this first book in Tassamara, I am dying to dive into the next book! I have found that I enjoy the family dynamics of the Latimer family, the dynamics of the town of Tassamara and I just want to know more, I want to hear the stories of the people and the ghosts.

This is a great read, would make a great television series! Anyone that loves a series based on a family, paranormal or para-senses, then you should take a read.


Other Books in the Tassamara Series
A Gift of Thought
The Spirits of Christmas
A Gift of Time


A  Lonely Magic

Author's webpage:  www.sarahwynde.com

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New Beginnings (Other's of Edenton, #0.5) by: Brandy L. Rivers BOOK REVIEW

New Beginnings 
Others of Edenton, Prequel
by Brandy L. Rivers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Normally alcohol doesn't effect Jess, but when someone brings homemade moonshine to the party, Jess ends up drunk at in bed with her pack Alpha, Gregory. This is the granddaddy of all mistakes! She wakes up and runs to her friend Gabe, she has to leave town and soon. Greg is a jerk, and once she has slept with him he is going to expect it all the time and won't take no for an answer. So Gabe gives her a lead on a bar for sale in Edenton, now she just has to buy it and get the pack alpha there, Slater to give her permission to move.

Slater is the pack alpha in Edenton, his second Liam is an old guy who is walking on shaky ground and the pack knows it, but they don't want to let him go without a good reason. Then there is the newest wolf, Brody, who Slater is good friends with and made an enforcer, which didn't set well with Liam at all. Slater and Brody are ready for Jess, who is not a wolf but a psychic and gets visions of the future to move to Edenton.

Edenton is a town of mostly others, the werewolf pack, some other shifters, a fae sheriff and a vampire. There might be a few humans in town too, but for the most part, it's a great place to be if you are on that other side of the realm. Jess is sure that this will be a great place to start a new beginning, but she is immediately attracted to Slater. She refuses to go there, she has sworn off wolves and alphas even more after the Gregory incident. Now she just wants to run her bar and have a good life.

Liam, and a need to avenge some wrong he feels was done will create havoc and chaos in town and within the pack. Will Jess's visions of this place come true? And what about her relationships with Brody and Slater?

This is a great start to a series on a town filled with others. Love the werewolves, but even more love that there are other people of other talents mixed into the town and they all work together and interact. There is a balance and a friendship that really makes you want to live in a place like Edenton. It sounds like and feels like a real hometown community.

No matter what you preference, shifters, fae, mage's, you will find them in Edenton and in this series and it is a great deal of fun. Each book plays off the other, so I really recommend that you read them in order, but you could go out of order. It just would introduce new people to town without the details if you did.

Others of Edenton
New Beginnings                             My Review Link
In Too Deep                                  My Review Link
Shadows Fall                                 My Review Link
Shadows of the Past                      My Review Link
Falling Into Place                           My Review Link

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Riduna (The Riduna Series, 1) by Diana Jackson BOOK REVIEW

Riduna 
The Riduna Series, 1
by Diana Jackson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .

Harriet always thought she had her simple life planned out. She would grow up on Riduna, marry and raise a family never leaving her tiny island home. Sometimes dreams aren't enough to face the realities of life, and the harsh realities of life can change even the best of dreams. Edward grwe up next door to Harriet and he had always dreamed of traveling, going to sea and adventuring but he always thought he would come back to the safe port of home in Riduna, and Harriet. When tragedies occur and Edward is far at sea and nowhere to be the rock that Harriet needs, his cousin Joe becomes her rock and protector. Riduna follows these three people through life and the developments of the world and war and all the changes that occur to change all of their dreams. Diana Jackson does a wonderful job of giving a family saga that touches your heart with love and heartache. You become involved in the family and want to know more and want to see what occurs.

Riduna is such a small island, but among the friends we met in the beginng, some can't wait to leave, some can never see leaving, and some who never planned to leave find things that they have no control over can change even the best of plans. Diana Jackson is a great writer and develops a wonderful story that has you feeling part of the lives of these people. You can almost imagine yourself on the island of Riduna right in their lives. There are historical events that truly occured mixed into the story that makes it feel even more real, and like this could really be someone's actual life. This is a great book, the first of two book in the series, and would be a wonderful read for anyone of interest.

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Never Lost by Riley Moreno BOOK REVIEW

Never Lost
by Riley Moreno

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Romance and Paranormal are popular genre's today, and add in a young adult main character and you have most of the recent top sellers. Given that information, Never Lost is something of its own completely.

The main character is Harper who at 16 is forced to move from Chicago to a tiny farm village in Wisconsin where her mother grew up. Life is changed in an instant, and not to the better as far a Harper can tell. The first person she meets in this new town is Danny Benson, the problem, Danny is a 17 year old ghost who has been wandering the woods for the last 39 years!

The interactions and relationship that develops between Harper and Danny is unlike any ghost-human relationship you have ever read about, in fact Danny appears more human than ghost. It is an intense relationship and it helps Harper to adjust to the move, but it won't last for long.

Although this is a short book, it was originally written in five small installments, but I read them all together at once. This book packs a powerful story and kept me wanting more till the end, in fact I still want more of the story.

This is a great young adult or teen story, the trials of moving to a new town, all fit with life and make this story so easy to relate to in many ways.

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A Deeper Cut by Sheri Wren Haymore BOOK REVIEW

A Deeper Cut 
by Sheri Wren Haymore


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .

Every summer Hunter spends it with Granny Jen in Beaufort. This year he has brought Mikki with him, thinking it might be a good thing for them. This summer though, a murderer has decided to visit Beaufort also, and frame Hunter for at least one of the killings. A Deeper Cut mixes drug dealers and sweet, southern charm into a realistic tale of a summer on the shoreline. Hunter is tasked with figuring out who he really is, and whether to continue to let his father's disappearance and failures define him or not. +Sheri Wren Haymore writes a wonderful mystery, thriller that you want to know who did it, but at the same time keeps the beauty and charm of life is a small southern town.

A Deeper Cut follows Hunter, and more than just the cuts of the killer are needing to be healed this summer. Hunter has always felt that everyone, except maybe Granny Jen expected him to fail and turn out like his father. This summer he will have to face his father, and the demons he carries and figure out who he really is. +Sheri Wren Haymore mixes this soul-searching with the mystery of who if offing drug dealers and sets it all in a sweet, charming southern town. You will feel for Hunter, want to hold the boy and help him through his struggles. At the same time you will enjoy the intrigue of discovering who the real killer is and just why the killer might have it out for the Kittrell family.

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Divided Against Yourselves by: Bill Hiatt BOOK REVIEW

Divided against Yourselves
by Bill Hiatt


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite 

Divided Against Yourselves is the second book in the Spell Weavers series, but unlike a number of series this book can be read on it's own without having read the first book and without feeling lost. Tal is a teenager dealing with reincarnation, in fact he is the reincarnation of the original Taliesin, a bard in King Arthur's court. Tal has successfully to this point merged his past lives together with his present life quite well. His best friend Stan is also a reincarnation, but his is not going so well. He past life as King David wants to take control too often. Even after defeating the witch Ceridwen last Halloween, Tal and the guys think they can relax and go back to normal life, only for Tal to be surprised by the appearance of Morgan Le Fay, who help Ceridwen at Halloween. Tal and his warriors work to figure out what Morgan wants and how to protect everyone at the same time. Bill Haitt does a wonderful job of weaving a magic tale into a modern day high school and making it work.

This is the first book I can remember reading that took on the reincarnation topic as a theme to the magic. It was novel of Bill Haitt to think of that plotline for a story, and it made this story compelling and interesting. It also opened a number of question that have me asking what is the next book after Divided Against Yourselves. I found the teenagers in the book to be real and remind me of my own teenagers at home, some of the bantering between the boys is stuff I hear coming from the boys in my sons room all the time. I felt the story was well developed and the action scenes would entertain and keep a good range of boys interested in reading. There is a puppy love vs. true love kind of thing, you know the kind that happens when you're sixteen through that along with the magic would keep girls reading. There are so many different side stories and themes in the book that are weaved together so well into a complete story that it will appeal to a great variety of readers.

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Plain Peace by: Beth Wiseman BOOK REVIEW

Plain Peace 
by Beth Wiseman


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Plain Peace is the latest novel in the Daughters of the Promise series by Beth Wiseman. I have to admit that this is the first of this series that I have read, and normally I hate to do that but at the time I picked this book I wasn't aware of the series. That being said, if you haven't read the series, you can still pick up this book and the story makes sense all on it's own, you don't have to have read the previous books. Although if you are like me, now having read this one, it makes me want to go back and read the others.

Anna is the bishop's granddaughter, and although she is growing her grandfather may be a little blind to that, along with a number of other things. Bishop Byler is old-fashioned and strict, some think too strict, but his strictness has a reason and it has purpose for him. Anna's parents died when she was young, in an auto accident as they were being driven by and Englisch. Anna has never minded his strictness, she has always felt loved, until now when it starts to effect her future and courting.

Jacob and his family are new to Paradise. The move was to be a fresh start for the family, yet it seems that they have brought all the brokenness with them. Jacob doesn't know the Bishop and so he tries to court Anna, the only person in town willing to try, despite the fact that she is sweet and beautiful. As Anna and Jacob develop a friendship, can she help to heal his family's hurts.

This is a story of life. So many things happen in lie that influence the decisions we make and the people we become. This story shows how the Bishop was influenced by his son's death. How the Bishop's wife rebelled in secret, and how all the people of the town mix together to heal each other. No one character stands on it's own, in fact they are all so intertwined together, I found myself flipping to the family tree's at the beginning of the book over and over again.

I have always enjoyed Amish life stories, and this was no different. I love the deep sense of family and connectedness that seems to come in that community. Sometimes I think that is what is wrong the world today, too much emphasis on self and not enough on family. I will have to say that this book does introduce a great deal of Englisch technologies into the Amish community, more than I have ever seen in an Amish book before, but it also has some sound reasoning for most of it. I didn't think it upset the story in any way, in fact it may be a more accurate picture of how the Amish have to deal with today's world. Whether it is or not, the story still focused more on the family and the influences of past events on their decisions and choices.

Anyone who is looking for an uplifting story, one to remind you of the value of family and being together. Working through all problems and finding faith and a way in the world, then this is for you. It was a sweet and enjoyable read.

Reviewed for +Book Sneeze.

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Division by: Karen Wyle BOOK REVIEW

Reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers Favorite

Karen Wyle takes on a unique topic in her new book, Division. It is the story of brothers, Gordon and Johnny, who are twins, but not your normal twins they are conjoined. The book starts out following their life as they grow from young children to teens, then to adults. It takes place in a future era where doctors have advanced medicine in a number of ways, and cloning is just one of them. The idea of a transplant to clone procedure that could be done to give each twin his own separate life is placed in Johnny's mind on day. This begins a long court battle on who gets to choose what to do, Johnny who want to separate or Gordon who is happy being conjoined.

This is such a unique and complex topic that wasn't sure how the author, Karen Wyle would handle it in the book, Division. I have to say, she researched and did a good job of learning about conjoined twins and other twins. The personalities displayed by the characters actually remind me of twins I know. The book is well written and very well thought out, the author really gets into the minds of these two different men. Neither side is pushed as being the best choice, arguments for both are presented so balanced that you don't know which way things will happen until they do. I think of it as a part coming-of-age story, because each twin is struggling to find himself in this world, whether it be conjoined or alone. It will appeal to young and old readers alike. Call is science fiction, fantasy, young adult, future or realistic; whatever you want to call it, it is good reading for all.

Of Dreams and Shadow (Forget Me Not, #1) by D. S. McKnight BOOK REVIEW

Of Dreams and Shadow by D.S. McKnight
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I belong to a number of book groups, writing groups and reading groups. In one of those groups, I was asked to read this book and write a review for the author. I agreed, because I love to read and write, but I made it clear that my review would be my honest opinion, they agreed and and I read Of Dreams and Shadow on my Kindle.

You might call it a Young Adult novel, since the main characters are teenagers in High School. I really didn't think of it that way, I barely remembered at times they were in High School because of the story. Even if you think you don't like anything labeled as Young Adult, give this a try, it's really not what you would think of as Young Adult, a little more mature.

The story starts with the disappearance of a bright little four year old girl named Sarah, that is witnessed by the next door neighbor boy, Chase also four, but no one can believe what he tells them. It's a mystery. Fast forward twelve years and a new family moves in next door to a teenage Chase, and they have a teenage daughter his age.

As Jenna adjusts to moving from the big city of Charlotte to the small town of Parson's Cove, in the middle of the school year no less, she makes friends and enemies. She thinks the boy next door, Chase is an enemy, but there is more beneath what he is thinking, every time he sees her he is reminded of Sarah.

The story plays out as Jenna and Chase learn to be friends, and learn more about the truth of what really happened to Sarah. It was just as Chase saw it happen, it is just that it doesn't make sense then, now at the older ages, and learning the things they do, it makes more sense.

I really enjoyed the book, it only took me two days to read, and that is only because I had to put it down and stop reading for awhile to take care of the family, or I would have read it straight through! I liked it! Young adult, ok they are teens, but it wasn't the annoying coming of age that a number of young adults have been recently. Paranormal, in a way but not as much as you would think. It's more about the idea that there is more than just life or death, but something in between.

I found it to be well written, to captivate my senses and draw me in. Yes, there were a few times when I wanted to smack Jenna in the head and say "Girl, are you dense?" but only a few, and then I had to remember she is suppose to be a junior in high school, so maybe I should cut her some slack.

This book stands on it's own, but from the ending, I can see where there is an opening to carry on with the books ideas and move into another story. I liked that it stood alone, that I didn't feel I needed another book to finish the story. It ends on a good enough note that you feel the closure of the story and you can move on, it's not a cliffhanger. I am so tried of reading books that end leaving you guessing and you have to read another just to get closure.

Overall, I gave this a high rating, and I normally don't do 5 stars, but it deserves them. It was just a good book that anyone can enjoy, not just young adults, trust me I have teens at home, so I am no spring chicken and I loved it!

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