Category: Books



Eat Like A Farm Girl: 3 Ingredient Plant Based Recipes
Eat Like A Farm Girl: 3 Ingredient Plant Based Recipes by Jennifer Prince
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you are into recipes, this is your book.

Me? I hate cooking. I fell for this because of the 3 Ingredient Plant-Based part of the title. I am, for the most part a vegan who is gluten-free and must watch my sugar and fat intake. This book didn’t give me 3 ingredients ever. I was very confused by that. In fact, if I followed this diet I would violate nearly all my diet restrictions.

I liked reading about the author’s lifestyle. Having raised chickens, ducks and goats on an acre no-kill ‘farm’ and greenhorn at gardening, I loved reading about how it is supposed to be done. I so miss living in the country where I could have all those animals. I did eat the eggs and milked the goats. But I haven’t been able to eat eggs for a long time. Maybe there are too many hormones and the like in the grocery store eggs.

As for the rest of the book, I found the author repeated herself in the set up. The part that is about the problem at hand and how she has the answer. That got old for me. Then came the many recipes involving lots of ingredients that are not available for me, or that I can’t eat. Some do look delicious, though.

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Ashes
Ashes by Linda Laforge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I won this paperback version from First Reads giveaways on GoodReads.com Thank you!

This is the first ‘tree’ book I have read in a long, long time. Most of the time I have a hard time with font and line spacing and find myself frustrated and getting headaches. The font in this book was dark against white background and was large enough to allow short periods of reading. Still, I miss the text-to-speech help and the ability of instant dictionary lookup.

This book is strange. Science fiction gone wonky and scary. Maybe because of that it is best that I did take it in small doses. There is dystopia and questions of paranoia to keep you wondering what is really happening. But stay with it. The story is good, and very imaginative. I am so glad I read it.

On the downside, I think the book could use more editing as there are misspelled words and sentences that make no sense. It isn’t often enough to pull one out of the story but it is there. Oh, and without giving any spoilers, the lisping is the worst to read. The message given is strong and I think would stand better without that constant impediment.

Anyway, I think most sci-fi buffs will like this book, especially those who like apocalyptic dystopias.

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Review: Silver Tongue


Silver Tongue
Silver Tongue by Evelyn Ink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This was a free Smashwords ebook from the author for an honest review, Thank you!

I love the way Evelyn Ink thinks. Her books are always so creative and fun. The worlds she builds are like our own but not. The people have many words similar to ours and some that stray from ours but in logical ways. The best part about her worlds are that they are somewhat steampunkie with aeroships at the like. Her characters are believable, flawed but ever growing.

Silver Tongue’s blurb presents the book as dark and scary. As a middle schooler or junior high student that might be thrilling but as an older student I think this book is just a fun adventure. I can imagine reading this book to my own children so long ago and having a great time with it. But it isn’t simple. Older people can enjoy it, too!

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Love and Cola Wars
Love and Cola Wars by Heidi Loney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This ebook was a gift from the author for an honest review.

If I were a teen this would probably be getting a much higher rating. Even so, I would say this rates a 3.5 star rating. So I rounded it up.

What was good? The book didn’t get mired down in the angst that a lot of YA romance novels do. What worries presented were not hormonal but rather more about life lessons and growth of characters. I liked that we got to see the romance from several points of view. Parents and their own problems were included. There was even a little sister who was given worth beyond being cute. Bravo! The main characters were both strong in their own right yet flawed making them realistic. The story was good. There were a few plot threads so as to keep it all interesting. And I felt I learned something. The terms and play of fencing as a sport was explained while not getting bogged down in detail.

What was bad? Not much, actually. As I’m thinking about this I feel it is my own age that prevented me from immersing in the story as a reader should. Oh, and assumption that Coke is number one. I prefer Diet Pepsi!

Conclusion? If you like Young Adult Romance, this is a book for you.

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Rowena and the Dark Lord
Rowena and the Dark Lord by Melodie Campbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review will be for ASIN: B00CIZZS70

Disclaimer: I was gifted this Kindle book for an honest review by the author. Thank you!!

I love the Rowena books! This is the second one. The first was Rowena Through the Wall. And the magic is that the wall at the back of the classroom that Rowena teaches in, leads to another land far less advanced in culture than 2013 Arizona. It is a land where magic can still be used. And women are nonexistent due to a curse. So when Rowena appears the men fall over themselves to own her.

But this review is for book two. Rowena is now pregnant with one of the men’s baby. She is able to use magic in this faraway land but finds she must visit Arizona once in a while. Due to things that happened in the previous book, Rowena is blessed and cursed to have even more modern people involved in this wall travel. Whew!

I love how Melodie Campbell is able to make both worlds seem very real. I love the characters and animals that are part of Rowena’s life on either side of the wall. And the plot is spot on. So exciting!

Book two doesn’t leave you with a cliffhanger, but there is a chapter for book three at the end of book two. Darn! Now I can’t wait to read that one! Great job, Ms. Campbell!

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Review: World After


World After
World After by Susan Ee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was another book to keep me up until 3 in the morning. This series is so exciting! It involves so much action that from the beginning, in book one, until now the end of book two, one is caught up in the story. Susan Ee’s writing keeps you captured in her world.

It was so long ago that I read the first book that I was a little worried that I would have to go back and read book one again to remember all that had happened but Ms. Ee does a marvelous job reacquainting the reader with ‘World Before’and ‘World During’ that it all flows quite well as we step into ‘World After’.

Book one had us meeting Penryn, her little crippled sister, and their mentally ill mother. The world was hard enough for poor Penryn to live in then the Angels and Demons decided to cause the apocalypse. Survival was the theme in both of these books. But there is a minor (?) romance between Penryn and an angel.

This book continues the survival, fighting, and romance. Penryn is quite the character and struggles to help her family and the other humans to survive. She learns to use the angel’s sword and tries to save everyone. She is quite spunky and able to hold her own no matter what.

I was about a third of the way in the Kindle version of the book when I realized that I had the Audible version of the book that I had purchased a while back. I must admit that the narrator, Caitlin Davies, was able to read the story exactly how I had been hearing it in my head. What is nice about having the audio version is you get to hear how the names should be pronounced. In this case I had been calling Raffe ‘RAF’ with a long ‘A’ sound and silent ‘e’. Apparently it is ‘Rawffa’. Sounds a lot better the right way, I must admit!

Though almost all threads have been tied up, and the ending is sweet, there is enough to let me know there will be more. Yay! I do really enjoy this series. Oh, and those who don’t believe in angels demons or the bible will still enjoy this series as a fantasy. I recommend it to all for a fun adventure.

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Damnation Marked
Damnation Marked by S.M. Reine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve done it again! Grrrr! Ever get done with one book in a series and without stopping to do a review, jump right in and read the next book? Well, that’s what I did. Now I am 80% into book five and I can’t remember book four. But that should give you a bit of an idea about how well I liked the book. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to the characters.

This book didn’t end with a cliffhanger, by the way. One could very well let it go and read the next book when they can. But Reno and Tahoe were left in a big mess. I am afraid to go downtown now as I am sure I will see it all apocalyptic and ruined! That is the fun of these books for me. The author has included landmarks around here and has hell take over. And it is during the snows so reading it in the right season helps to add to the allure.

Elise, the main character is a strong person often too strong for her own good but we do get to see her insecurities and weaknesses. She has a good support system around her but often chooses the role as protector rather than put her friends/family in the way of danger. She’s sassy and fun.

The problem I had with this book is the same I had with the last one, the jumping back and forth in time. If you read on the Kindle, especially using text-to-speech the sections go by and it is easy to get lost. I think asterisks would help to signify a new point of view or scene, especially when many of the sections contain the same people just earlier or much later.

Still, this is a fun series, and I feel I must continue reading until I catch up with Sara’s stories. What an imagination!

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Shadow of the Sun
Shadow of the Sun by Laura Kreitzer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three stars means I liked this book. Was it a favorite? Sorry, no. It had a lot of interesting ideas that were unique, but the follow-through wasn’t there, unless, of course that comes in book two or three.

I liked that the main character was a well-educated lady with lots of smarts. At first, though, I didn’t much like her as she was snotty to her helper. Later that falls by the wayside as the character development reveals someone who does have a heart.

There was a lot of repetition of feelings and information. And it wasn’t long before this genius person, the strong person becomes the fainter, the whiner. And worst of all she becomes the boy-crazy teen. That was too bad as I wanted to like her.

Though fairly well-written, the Tablet/Fire version of this book was hard to read as the font was too light. Thank goodness I was able to read it on my Second Generation Kindle with text-to-speech. I did notice that my edition of the book is no longer available, but there is still a free version for Kindle at the moment. Maybe the font issue has been dealt with. Try it. Maybe you will like it better than I did.

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Review: Striking Mars


Striking Mars
Striking Mars by Cidney Swanson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the best sci-fi series I have ever read. Lots of space travel and well researched situations to keep the reader engaged. Check out my reviews on the previous four books to feel my glow. I am so excited that there is going to be yet one more book that I totally turned ‘Fan Girl’. As soon as I finished reading this book last night I wrote to the author to gush and beg for the next one. Gosh, I can’t wait to read six. It is supposed to be out this Spring, yet another reason I want Winter to LEAVE!

Once again, I am so impressed with the main character Jess and her autistic (?) hacker brother, Ethan. There is a lot of enjoying time on Mars through the family left there, time on Earth, and even time on the Moon. It was just so much fun!

Please do yourself a favor and grab the triology for $2.99 Then enjoy a great adventure. Then follow up with the science links that Ms. Swanson puts in the back of the book. It is worth every penny!

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Review: Mars Burning


Mars Burning
Mars Burning by Cidney Swanson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a hard review to write. Why? Because I have to take time out of the next book in the series to write it. I absolutely love this series! It is the most satisfying science fiction that I have read in my entire life! I don’t want it to end! In my 64 years, I have read a lot of sci-fi. Much of it made me want to be an astronaut. But almost all of it was written by males with male main characters. That didn’t stop me from reading it. Had this been my reading diet as a young person I might have pushed myself beyond my bad math skills to aim for that dream. Fly to Mars and be a Martian citizen.

What I like most about this series is what I liked of Asimov’s books. The research is there. Cidney Swanson does one better, she gives the reader the opportunity to follow suggested links at the end of the book to learn about Mars, NASA, and other wonderful sciencey goodness.

But don’t get hung-up on the science. Ms. Swanson creates strong characters and builds believable worlds. Jess, the spit-fire pilot and her brother Ethan, a savant hacker, are flying to Earth, back, and beyond to save their home-world of Mars. The depth of characters and their relationships astounds me.

I could go on and on but book five is calling me. Please, if you get the chance, read the Saving Mars series. I think the trilogy is still $.99. Enjoy!

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