Category: Reading



Elphie Goes Trick or Treating (Elphie Books Book 3)Elphie Goes Trick or Treating by Hagit R. Oron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book free of charge from the author. Thank you!

Do you have a child that is afraid of masks or other aspects of Halloween? I remember when my first was afraid of masks. The one that frightened him was made of rubber. I turned it inside out and said it was made of rubber. Then I picked up other things around the house made of the same substance. I don’t think it helped at all. This little story might have helped.

I loved how the parent let the little guy go out without his mask just so he could still have fun wth his friend. When the child got used to how everyone responds to the fun of the evening he decides for himself that wearing a mask is okay. It is always better to let the child come to his or her own healthy conclusions than forcing an issue. Wise messages are here.

I think that the only problem I had with the book was that it was written in first-person. For some reason that was jarring. I tried to imagine reading this story to a child reading the “I” statements would seem to take a child out of the story. If it is meant to be an early reader that might work. But books like this I would want to read aloud to my children long before they learned to read so we could talk about the subject matter.

Still, I do think this is a cute book. I love the little elephant, Elphie.

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Life After CoffeeLife After Coffee by Virginia Franken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to thank NetGalley for letting me read this book. I liked the title and the premise of the story.

If you are under 45 this may be the book for you. Being a child of the 60s and the era of bra-burning, I was excited to see a book about a reversal of roles. Stay-at-home dad, mom travels for a high paying job. But I didn’t much like the characters. The dad seems the abandon the parenting job when the wife needs him to step up. She is left floundering with a couple young children after losing her job. She makes a lot of bad choices while her husband won’t see that his ‘back-up-plan’ won’t keep the family feed.

Look, I am glad we are in an era where this kind of story can be told and most of the reviewers LOVE it. The feminist in me is SO happy. But the humanist in me is still not satisfied with most of this story. I do love that the author researched about the finding and securing good coffee for the Starbuck’s obsessed. But for me, a tea-drinker, the story ended where I wanted it to start.

Still, I am giving this four stars for being modern and different. But YOU may just LOVE it.

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That's What Friends Are ForThat’s What Friends Are For by Sophia DeLuna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a short review on a short book. It was sweet and I wish there was more. I read this a couple weeks ago but life got in the way of reviews. I hope you’ll give it a try. I have a glow as I am writing this so even though it was a long time ago, it left its bittersweet mark on me. Enjoy!

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The Empress' New GownsThe Empress’ New Gowns by Gita V. Reddy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oops! I thought I actually wrote a review on this book as I ACTUALLY DID write a review already. But there was a computer glitch and the computer shut down. Then, well, life happened and I forgot. Luckily a friend “liked’ the review so I came back to the page and saw what I wrote wasn’t there. Sorry.

Let’s see if I can remember the gist of it. First of all, I do a lot of reviews for Gita V. Reddy. I like her work and when I saw this one I picked it up. I think I actually paid for this one but it was cheap and an author does deserve compensation for their work. I just am on such a limited SS budget that I rarely can buy a book. My small amount won’t keep a roof over her head, but I hope my reviews help lead people to try out her books for their edification and entertainment.

As for edification… this book was a cautionary tale to the pride that can be in each of us. The original tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes is the first part of the story. But the next part should be read by preteens, teens, and new adults. Pride can be a good thing, but if we keep it in check we retain our humanity. Gita was clever telling the female version of the original story. I enjoyed it.

Most readers will find this story fun. For me, the formatting stopped the full enjoyment. Since I do most of my reading at night and always using the black background with white font, I found I couldn’t see the words. I had to change my background to a lighter color but then found it too bright. Luckily, I always use Text-to-Speech and that worked fine. But had this been a longer story I think I would have given up. I have to read while listening as my brain needs to be fully engaged to get into a story. But for most people, this formatting issue won’t cause them a bit of a problem and they well enjoy this story fully.

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FaithfulFaithful by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from NetGalley dot com.

I read another book by Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden, and was very impressed. So when I saw this one offered for review I jumped at the chance. It was an ARC or Uncorrected Proof but when you get these from NetGalley it is hard to see the errors. At least, it’s that way for me. With most of the freebies I pick up through One Hundred Free Books, and the like, there are plenty of mistakes that even I can see. Sometimes there are so many I can’t get into the story. If the story is fantastic I can never see them. And this book hid the errors in a terrific story.

Okay. At first, I didn’t like the main character. Nearly stopped reading for her self-pity and hateful ways. But she grows on ya. Maybe that is because there is a line of characters that support and fill up the story. True, nearly killing yourself and best friend, knocking the friend into a permanent coma, would be hard to walk away from. One would think a person might learn that the negative behaviors didn’t help. But I don’t know how I would handle it all. I’m not a young person anymore. Hormones aren’t raging and I’ve seen my share of life. So who am I to judge this girl? So I did as I suggest other readers do, stick with it, get past it. She’ll grow on you. It was a great story. I’m glad I read it. Alice Hoffman is a fantastic writer!

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Daksha the Medicine GirlDaksha the Medicine Girl by Gita V. Reddy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this book by the author for an honest review.

Sorry it took so long for me to write this review. See my review for Soul Slam to find out why (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…).

I read this book in one evening quite a while ago. I remember enjoying it a lot. I loved learning about the main character, Daksha and her life. When you live in a society that is busy with it’s own goals of education and modern medicine, it is easy to forget that others have been living with herbal medicines and more holistic ways of living than we are used to. And they have survived centuries like that. So when we read about a young girl who apprentices for the local medicine man and finds this is her passion of life, it may seem a bit off. But we grow to love and understand her and her way of life.

The part I didn’t like was how the story was over before it had a chance to follow her next steps. I wanted to know more about her learning to read and getting that kind of education and how she might have taught others how to integrate her type of medicine with others we might have grown up with. Just a thought. I almost think this could be a series. I loved that it was centered around a girl. I just want more.

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All the Missing GirlsAll the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I was able to obtain this book for free from NetGalley for an honest review.

This book came highly recommended by my GoodReads friend, Melissa. Here’s where you can find her review: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9…

I was not as impressed by a story told in reverse. I often found it confusing. But the reason why becomes clear at the end.

I’m not a mystery person, especially murder-mystery person. I often find these kinds of stories dark. And they don’t make good bedtime stories for me. But for some reason I cared enough about the main character and the people she cared for that I kept reading. And I’m glad I did.

Not my favorite. But interesting.

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Lesbian Romance: Catnipped (Cat Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (New Adult and College Women's Fiction Romantic)Lesbian Romance: Catnipped (Cat Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) by Olivia Myers

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This review is a long time in coming. As I have said many times I don’t like anthologies, I don’t like collections of short stories, I don’t like short stories. And guess what this book wasโ€ฆ A collection. Of. Short stories.

I was drawn in by the blurb about this book which I thought was going to be Lesbian Romance: Catnip (Cat Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (New Adult and College Women’s Fiction Romantic). The first story was the story about a shapeshifting cat who happens to be lesbian. The story was okay.

After that story, was a mass of fantasy and sci-fi erotica that was all very heterosexual. Much of it was disturbing to me. Some would’ve been good as stories without the erotica. Very creative. Under really have to admit that it felt like the old switcheroo. If the title had been different, and not centered in on the lesbian shapeshifter cat, I wouldn’t have felt cheated. Had each of the stories sold as singular short stories it might not have felt so weird. But then it took me so long to get through all of these stories and so many of them just were not interesting to me– I nearly quit several times.

All in all, I am just happy to be finished with this book.

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The Other Einstein: A NovelThe Other Einstein: A Novel by Marie Benedict

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I was given this ARC/Uncorrected Proof (?) from NetGalley.com for an honest review.

Sorry to be getting so far behind on my reviews/reading. Summer. That’s all I can say. I am still knitting and crocheting hats for Hugger Hats (for the homeless or cancer victims) and then there is a lot of going outside and gardening, walking, traveling to Bend, and fighting flares take up a lot of my time now. Reading this book seemed to happen after the sun went down (9:30-10) when I was dog tired. Often getting to bed after midnight and being awakened at dawn (4:30-5) made for a sleep deficit. Warm days call for siesta! Good thing I am taking Spanish (and German) on Doulingo so I could come up with a word meant to take care of people in the summer heat.

As for this book… This was a good book. I appreciate the author going into the research to present to us a brilliant woman who was left behind to be yet another Hausfrau. We need many more books like this as history has only centered on HIS story. It is time to see Her story. Did you know that Albert took full credit for a theory SHE came up with and had the math skills he didn’t have to prove it all? This is a book that will make you mad. But it will give you an idea of what has happened in millions of marriages throughout his-story. Because of biology, women, brilliant or no, are forced to take care of home and children while the man gets all the glory and mental stimulation while she washes dishes and cleans poopy diapers. Why is that? What could have happened had all those chores be shared while all the brains got all the education and stimulation they needed, male or female?

The story was rich. But I felt it lacked a bit in energy. Not sure how I can explain that drag. And maybe it isn’t the author but rather… see my apology paragraph. On the other hand, maybe the edited version are better done. I must admit that the beginning of each chapter with a letter–was it a formatting issue? It was very distracting, especially for a text-to-speech reader like me. But then maybe those who are able to read without the TTS don’t even see that? And maybe all that has been fixed by now.

Those issues aside, I think this is another book that should be required reading for everyone. Except I always hate books that were required reading. SO PLEASE READ THIS BOOK. See if you don’t find enlightenment!

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Far from Home (Belladonna Ink, #1)Far from Home by Lorelie Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I was given this copy for an honest review by NetGalley.com.

Most of this story was interesting or better. I just couldn’t care for the main character and her anorexia. Sure, I know the disorder exists and causes pain to those who have it and their loved ones. But for some reason, it doesn’t come across for me as a redeeming quality for the main character. Maybe redeeming is the wrong word. I know we need to write characters that are flawed those they need to be rescued from or cured of. And maybe this was the flaw the author thought would endear us all to her. But I found it took away from the story rather than adding a sympathetic quality.

Maybe the story should have told from the Indian woman’s point of view? She looking to marry so as to stay in the USA. But she seems to have no flaws what so ever. She even has a most loving family, a super career. But other than that we know very little of why she longs to stay in America so badly that she is willing to marry someone she doesn’t know, especially a female.

Those points aside, I like the characters as they fall in love and struggle through their new relationship. The erotic scenes are hot but not overdone, they fit in the story quite well.

I always like to read stories that come alive in places I have lived. Orange County, California is one of my favorite places to live. The trouble with it is there are far too many people and it is far too expensive to live there. Beaches were what I lived for when I was there. I miss beaches. I must give my thanks to the author for letting her characters walk the sand and see the surf.

Even though this wasn’t a favorite story for me, I still look forward to reading more from the author and hopefully about this couple. Maybe that was why their histories weren’t told in depth? There’s more to come? I hope so.

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