Review of A Very Special Delivery

A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight Genre: Romance

     True love is hard to find. Life is full of misery. When people sabotage their own relationship and create their own misery, it is just painful to "watch". Molly and her sister experienced a tragic misfortune. Sometimes bad things happen in life through nobody's fault. But Molly's sister, Chloe, blames Molly for the incident. She is rude to the point of forcing Molly into seclusion rather than risk seeing her sister in public in this small town, and increasing Chloe's emotional pain with memories of that day. Molly internalizes her sister's blame with a heaping dose of guilt. Molly does such a number on her own psyche that she suffers from panic attacks.

     We also have Ethan, a single father with a past. Everyone has a past and his is no worse than some. Yet this book seems to enjoy making mountains out of molehills while attempting to call it entertainment. The community ostracizes Ethan for his "wild" past. Now let's throw some religion in for "fun". Normally when I run into a book that deals with religion I try to keep an open mind and believe there is something in this book that I need to learn in order to grow spiritually. The only thing that I learned is the hypocrisy of some so-called "Christians". The church members who look down their noses at Ethan because of the life style he had lived when he was young, not for the man that he had become. Chloe refusing to forgive her sister so that Molly quits going to the community church that her sister regularly attends. The situation between Molly and Chloe was heartbreaking and they both felt blame needed to be placed. Since they were "Christians" they couldn't try to blame God for the cruelty so therefore it must have been Molly's fault, since she was the only other person there when it happened.

     It took me FOUR days to read this book that was less than 200 pages. I read fast when I'm interested in a book. This was just painful to experience and was the closest that I ever came to not finishing a book. I always hope that there will be some redeeming quality that I might otherwise miss out on that makes the book not quite so pointless. Granted everyone finally figured out that stuff just happens in life. It's a romance novel after all so of course everything works out in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. This story never really made it past the pointless stage. I can't even give it merit for it's entertainment principles.

Review of Nikki Powergloves

     Nikki Nickerson is an average nine year old girl. She isn't overly popular or stunningly attractive. She probably wouldn't stand out in a crowd. One fine summer day, that all changes when Nikki stumbles across a fantastical creature. A cross between a porcupine and a beaver and possessing the ability of speech, this creature gives Nikki a treasure chest. He warns Nikki that she must be willing to shoulder the responsibility that comes with his gift. Inside the chest are 9 pairs of gloves, each give Nikki a different superpower. This is the birth of Nikki Powergloves.

     As an adult reading a children's book targeted at 8-10 year olds, I was still quite impressed. The assorted superpowers are very imaginative and quite cool. Some might not exactly help much in defeating a villian, but are quite handy nonetheless. I'm not very confident in my ability to review a children's book. I think as adults our opinions of favorite childhood stories become biased with a decent dosage of nostalgia. I can't quite compare Nikki Powergloves with Judy Blume's Freckle Juice or Laura Lee Hope's Bobbsey Twins series. I can say that Estes does not talk down to his audience, or use words or phrases that children would find hard to understand.

Interview with David Estes

Hi David! I have had the great pleasure to chat with you on several occasions and have been quite impressed with how personable you are. Thank you for agreeing to this interview so my readers can experience for themselves the energy and passion that you radiate.

      Hi Laurie!! Thanks so much for inviting me on your awesome blog and for featuring me this month, it’s a HUGE honor and I’m extremely humbled by it. I just want to tell all your readers how awesome you are as a beta reader. Laurie started beta reading for me with The Moon Dwellers and now she’s one of my most trusted readers. She always catches my plot holes and helps me to fix them so my books are the best they can be before my readers ever see them.

Ever the flatterer! Your books are a true joy to read and I'm honored to be a part of the team that helps make such wonderful stories come to fruition. I'm very grateful for this opportunity.

Let's start with the basics. You were born in El Paso, TX; Moved to Pittsburgh, PA as a child; and graduated from Penn State. What motivated you to move to Australia?

      Great question! As you said, I grew up in Pittsburgh, reading books and playing sports and cheering for the Steelers and Penguins and Pirates. After college at Penn State, I spent about 5 years working as an accountant (I know, boring!) in Pittsburgh. At some point, I realized I needed a change, something to inspire me, something to get my life energized. So when an opportunity arose to move with my company to Sydney, Australia for two years, I grabbed it, packing up my whole life and moving halfway around the world, waaaaay Down Under. Let me tell you, Australia is an incredible place for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I met my amazing and beautiful Australian wife there. I met her within 9 months, was engaged 3 months later, and we eloped in Malaysia a mere 6 months after we met! It was a true love story.

Lace by Shirley Conran - Review

Lace Book One of Series by Shirley Conran Genre: Romance

     Kate and Pagan are school friends from England who talk their parents into sending them to the same Swiss finishing school. There they meet Maxine, Kate's roommate who is from France. Judy, an American scholarship student at a language school nearby and works as a waitress to help pay for her schooling, rounds out this group of four girls who become tight knit friends through thick and thin. Can't forget Lilli, a gorgeous with a notorious past who was raised by a foster mother, separated from her foster family while escaping from behind the Iron Curtain, exploited horribly, and has tracked her real mother down to being one of these four women.

Review of The Moon Dwellers by David Estes

The Moon Dwellers by David Estes Book 1 of The Dwellers series Genres: Action Adventure, Romance,    Young Adult

     Adele is a Moon Dweller. A second class citizen in a world where the differences in the social and economic class structure is exceedingly prominent. Tristan is a sun dweller, one of the elite in a class of aristocrats. He isn't just one of the privileged few, he is the president's eldest son and heir to inherit the right to rule. Adele was just one in a crowd of many as Tristan remotely waved from a float in a parade passing by. Their eyes met, their gazes locked. Against all odds and reason, Tristan knew he had to find Adele. He had to meet her and talk to her. He felt an unexplainable pull towards her.

     You can't pigeonhole this YA fiction into one specific genre. It has all the elements of action & adventure, comedy, tragedy, romance, and suspense all rolled into one magnificent story by author David Estes.

BookBub

     I was recently informed of a service called BookBub. It is completely free and sign up is easy. You supply your email address and fill out a simple checklist of the different genres that you are interested in. There is also a checklist for where you download ebooks, whether from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Then when free ebooks become available within the genres on your list of interests from the dealer(s) that you frequent, they will send you an email to let you know. Never miss a potentially good free ebook again!

Review of Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse by David Lender

     Extreme religious terrorists are plotting with a Saudi Arabian prince within the Royal family to over throw the government. They are stopped by an unexpected force. Twenty years later, the terrorists have reorganized themselves and have come up with a new diabolical plot. Can they be stopped again?

     A large amount of the story deals with Muslim traditions. While I found this information interesting, a lot of it didn't make much sense to me as I know nothing about the Muslim faith. Same goes with the intricate dealings in the world of finance banking, specifically in gas and oil.