Category: Reviews



The Witch and the Englishman (The Witches Series #2)The Witch and the Englishman by J.R. Rain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I hate when I don’t review within the day of reading a book. I am always already reading other books and find it hard to get back into the mindset of the previous book.

Let’s see, I finished this two nights ago. I was able to have the Whispersynch audible to listen to as I read. I must admit for Francesca Townes, narrator, this book seemed much better than the first one. She was able to handle all the voices male and female with great acting skills. Each character had their own voice and, well, character. The only voice I don’t like is the one of the detective. But he isn’t around so much so we don’t have to put up with that voice very much. Reading with her voice is so important for me now that I just don’t want to get into book three without it. So even though I want more of this series, I will wait to pick up the next book.

Meanwhile, the character Allison Lopez is gaining ground in her experience as a witch. It’s a good thing as the challenges she faces in this book seem harder, nearly impossible to solve. I love that she gets a new friend out of the deal. I love that we got to know her old friends in more depth. But is she ready for the demon realm?

This book was very intense in places but moved along quite well between. I look forward to more in this series, but please, add Francesca Townes’s narration soon!

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Wild Women: Crusaders, Curmudgeons, and Completely Corsetless Ladies in the Otherwise Virtuous Victorian EraWild Women: Crusaders, Curmudgeons, and Completely Corsetless Ladies in the Otherwise Virtuous Victorian Era by Autumn Stephens

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Whew! I am finally finished reading this book. You wouldn’t think I would have such a bad reaction to a book about strong womyn. And honestly, the knowledge contained within this book is amazing. I did learn a lot about many ladies. I learned a lot about that era of history, also. If it hadn’t taken me SO long to read it, I would have given it lots of stars for the educational feature alone.

So why the low rating? The font was impossible for me to read. It is dark black font against a bright white background and the lines are spaced too close together. So I could only handle one or two pages at a time. Luckily, each bio is a page and a half so even though it hurt my eyes I could read at least that much in a day. And that might have been enough unto itself, but the author’s writing style was SO annoying. Alliterations and other pitiful poetic word choices built into very long complicated sentences, like this one, made me have to go back and reread whole paragraphs. When you already have tracking problems, this cutesy writing becomes very annoying. Often the choice of words makes for a very confusing read.

If you have great eyes this may be a fun read for you. If so, enjoy! My eyes need a vacation. Back to Kindles for me!

By the way, this copy is a BookCrossing book. BCID 142-11420919 Check out where it’s heading and where it’s been on BookCrossing.com

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Homesteading Handbook vol. 1: The Beginner's Guide to Becoming Self-Sustainable (Homesteading Handbooks)Homesteading Handbook vol. 1: The Beginner’s Guide to Becoming Self-Sustainable by Michelle Grande

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was free when I picked it up. I expected another light overview of homesteading, like the ones I read before. No. This one was a surprise. It was so full of everything a person might need to get started on your own self-sustainable farm. Does it go into depth of all these topics? No. But it does give you an introduction on every aspect I could think of living out on your own. I would suspect that many of our forefathers and foremothers started with less information than this.

The first half of the book is devoted to gardening and the types of gardening styles there can be. But Michelle Grande (author) doesn’t stop with a light introduction. She includes pictures and charts and lists of tools and plants for each way of producing vegetables, herbs and flowers. The pictures are beautiful, the charts well written, easy to understand. All are clickable to enlarge to a suitable size.

Animals fill the next bit of the book, from chickens to llamas. Again, Ms. Grande was thorough in teaching the greenhorn the types of each animal that work best with what type of land you live on and includes husbandry for each. Of course, there are some that are left out, probably for brevity sake, but this gets one started.

Crafts, compost, solar and wind energy, recipes, canning and other storing of foods, even toilets that compost. This book is so full of so many topics! All with plans and recipes, charts and illustrations to get one started. I know I will need to read this over and over.

I didn’t read every word. Since I am not on the land I hope to buy, there is little I can do until I get there. Then it will be Fall and I won’t be able to do much of it then. But that is when I will pull this book out again and start making lists and reading in detail how to do everything. Then I will know what to read in depth. I may even try to buy this book in tree form so that I can keep it out on the table to refer to often.

This book is still free if you have Kindle Unlimited. I suppose if you need to give it a quick review or preview that would be the way to go. But I find that the $2.99 is well worth it. It is worth much more!

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Destiny Interrupted: Sweetly Romantic Time Travel Mini-Adventures (Eternal Time Shadows #1)Destiny Interrupted: Sweetly Romantic Time Travel Mini-Adventures by Lisa Shea

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

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

And there lies the uncomfortable truth I must deal with. So let me kindly say, I saw no editing errors in the story. It was well written, according to my low standards.

BUT… I hate short stories. I wish I would have known. I wouldn’t have jumped for a chance to read this. In a day when binge watching of a series is the best way to watch something, I feel the same for my reading. I want to read everything in a series non-stop. Except romantic chic-lit. I can tolerate it in some stories, but for the full reason to read something I find it demeaning to womynkind.

The saving grace, and probably the reason I jumped at the chance to read this story: time travel. But this story didn’t include that until the end. Just when you get to know the characters (weak and swoony) we are left with a cliffhanger that includes waking in another time. Oh, yeah, what else do I hate? Let’s say it all together: Cliffhangers.

Look, there are a lot of high ratings for this book. If you see yourself as able to handle this kind of writing, you will probably love this one, too. It is free. The rest of the series seems to be $.99 an installment. Not bad for snippets of story. Enjoy!

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Clone Three (Clone Chronicles, #1)Clone Three by Patti Larsen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Have I read too many Young Adult/Dystopian books? I feel like at some point in my reading I would have loved, loved, loved this book. But instead I found myself wishing for another Maximum Ride book instead of this one. Sorry. I kept telling myself to let go of the similarities (and differences–no wings) and accept this on its own merits. And maybe this goes over very well with the targeted audience. And not so much with old ladies.

It may be that I wasn’t in love with the main character, Clone3. She wasn’t horrid, she just hasn’t developed her spunk enough. Maybe by book two she will. She is learning about her abilities and starting to be more of a leader instead of a loner. After all, she can’t remember anything from her past and has no clue who or what she is.

Another thing I had a hard time with is the constant tension. Maybe the YAs love this. But I find I like moments of self-revelation or learning of the place you are at, etc. rather than one crises after another.

Still I did like it and plan to read the rest of the series someday. Since I have a move in the works, I am trying not to add to my ‘need to read soon’ pile.

I’m sorry, Patti Larsen, for taking so long in reviewing this book. I hope your promotional goes well. I admire you and your talent. I hope YA/Dystopiats come out of the woodwork for this series!

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The Witch and the GentlemanThe Witch and the Gentleman by J.R. Rain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an unexpected surprise. First of all, it came to me as a Kindle freebie. I did pay $1.99 for the whispersynch audio which made the book even better. But my goal is that I read mostly books by lady authors with strong fem main characters. Occasionally, there will be a book with an author name that only has initials and a last name. Those can be tricky as the author is of undetermined gender. I picked this book up just hoping it was a fem. It is a guy.

So, there are things I look for if it is a male writer. How well does he portray his fem lead? How do the secondary characters react to the lead? And for either gender writer, I look at how realistic the fantasy person and world is.

In this case, I didn’t have a lot of problems with the fem lead, except…crying. Geez! Planning to go take a cry? Crying a lot! A real lady doesn’t respond to a person dying in front of her by planning to cry later. She might not cry at all. Shaking, maybe, but goodness gracious! For the rest of the book I think JB Rain got it right. Don’t be putting anything on a gentlelady that you wouldn’t put on a gentleman.

Apart from the gender issue is the realism of fantasy. Allison Lopez, the main character, is a psychic hotline operator. As one who already possesses some psychic talents, why have her so afraid when the ghost appears? Not just an initial reaction but over and over it is stated how scary this is. I think a true psychic wouldn’t have been afraid once the initial introduction happens.

BUT overall, this is a fun book with a main character I could relate to. (I have been a psychic hotline operator. I have encountered a ghost or two.) What I loved was the amount a truth in developing these talents and bits about Wicca and its practices. From what research I have done, most of these practices were well done.

Oh, a word about the narrator, Francesca Townes. I did enjoy the addition of her voice to the story. Her interpretation of the male voice wasn’t the greatest, but it worked once I got used to it.

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Mini Farming: Mini Farming For Beginners: DIY Guide To Build A Self Sustainable Backyard (Backyard Farming - Homesteading - Backyard Chickens - Handbook - Backyard Gardening - Mini Farming)Mini Farming: Mini Farming For Beginners: DIY Guide To Build A Self Sustainable Backyard by Anders Svensson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It has been my recent mission to read as much about self-sustaining farming as possible so that I will know as much as I can I when move out to the country and start living in a more ecological and healthful way. So here is yet another sampling of what I’m reading.

Though this book has no clickable references, this is still full of a lot of interesting ideas as to run a small farm. I will come back to read it again once we are moved in. Remember, though, it is for beginners. For those who have been farming for a while this is not for you.

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Three Sisters (Emily Castles Mysteries)Three Sisters by Helen Smith

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

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

I started reading this just before going to sleep. I finished at a decent bedtime. I had to read it with the text-to-speech turned on as I found it going rather slowly. I didn’t care for Emily, the main character. She seemed like a nosey neighbor more than anything.

Beware of the spoiler, the title of the book. That took all the mystery out of the story. Most of the time I found I was feeling left out. That the author just gave it all to me. And yet… Would you believe it? I still have no real idea whodunit. Since I don’t like short stories, and I don’t much like mysteries, this didn’t feed me anything. Even the chance that I could travel to England and learn something new about the country or her people, fell flat.

Okay, there seems to be a lot of higher star ratings, so it may just be me. I don’t feel at all compelled to see what happens to Emily next. But I wish the author well and that you all will find me wrong.

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Homesteading for Beginners: 33 Awesome Tips That Will Show You How to Become a Perfect Homesteader Without Having to Count on Others (Homesteading for ... homesteading survival, urban homesteading)Homesteading for Beginners: 33 Awesome Tips That Will Show You How to Become a Perfect Homesteader Without Having to Count on Others by Jessica Flippo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For someone who is thinking, hoping and planning on having a self-sustaining life, like me, this is a great starter book. Not only does it remind you of what you want to try to do, it has many clickable references for deeper research.

Though it was quite readable, in others words, not full of dry verbiage, there still were a few places an editor would help. My favorite one was in the chapter about needed skills. Under knitting and crocheting, the author suggests making sweaters for the cold moths. I had to laugh out loud at the picture that created in my mind. Well, how cute if all butterflies and moths wore sweaters? They might live through the winter if they had warmer garments!

But the editing issues are small, at least to my eyes. Which is why I still have no books of my own published. I get too involved in the creative end.

By the way, I picked this one up for free. It still is for Kindle Unlimited. Still, it is only $2.99 for now and that isn’t bad for those who need a primer.

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UnforgottenUnforgotten by E.M. Vail

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Another one that kept me up til the wee hours of the morning.

Before I begin, I need to disclose that I picked this up quite a while ago from BookRooster.com which doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I feel it is my fault, in a way, as I can only review so many books a month. But I download many, many per day and had at least 25 of the BookRoosters lined up. I am sorry to all authors who awaited my review. Even so, I will get to all of them, eventually. I only ordered the ones that sounded like my kind of books.

Look, I gave this five stars in spite of the bad editing. I am hoping that the new Kindle version (which, by the way, is free on Kindle Unlimited and only $2.99 for regular Kindle) is well edited. As I understand it, this is a first novel for the author, E.M. Vail. In that case, WOW!

Prologues are usually nonsense. I ordinarily don’t like them. They are a distraction that doesn’t pull the story along. In this case, I can say that when the story bogged down it was the curiosity about that prologue that kept me reading. I wondered all it would all come together.

The best thing about this book is how well developed all the characters are. Okay, I must admit that some of the dialogues felt stilted. And some of the actions or thoughts felt unfitting. But if one can keep moving regardless the story is fantastic. And as you fall in love with the characters and worry for their lives, keep a box of Kleenex handy. Around 90% in you will need them. And the pay-off of the prologue comes in the epilogue. Now you’ve come full circle and know why.

This is more than a coming of age book about three friends. This is a story of neighbors and the web of life for all. It is a full sized novel that I am happy I was given the chance to read. It could honestly be a good movie.

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