Thursday, April 30, 2020

Book Review: Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool by Shantelle Bisson

Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool
Title: Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool 

Author: Shantelle Bisson

Stars: 3 1\2

Review:
What parent isn't looking for the cure all book where the author wrote down your thoughts, ideas while showing the parent how the can improve in a positive uplifting way.
Shantelle Bisson almost takes readers to that place.  Shantelle shows readers the "real her" with her swearing about life, experience and well kids. When it comes to swearing lets face it everyone tries hard to control those tempting words but some of us fail.  Shantelle shows us she is part of that group.  However swear words to make a point or example works but she goes over the top at times with her swearing skills.
The author spends way to much time on before kids and early baby times and races though the ages and years that most of use are looking for help in life. Toddler though teen years.
While the author gives humor to life during baby times readers looking for guidance, help and understanding in the trenches of life this author has very little direction.
Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy of Shabntelle Bission Raising your kids without losing your cool.


Synopsis:
Let’s face it — raising children can take a wrecking ball to your ambitions, your finances, your relationships, even your health. But, as mother of three Shantelle Bisson will tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way. In Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool, Shantelle sets out how to get ready for baby‘s arrival, helps you through the big push, lays it all out on breastfeeding, and makes sure you don‘t forget to KEEP HAVING SEX. Plus, she‘ll help you navigate the perils of helicopter parenting, children on social media, and even gender-reveal parties, and answer the burning question: Is that really cool?

Paperback224 pages
Published April 4th 2020 by Dundurn

About The Author:
Shantelle was born and raised in Toronto, and splits her time between Toronto and Los Angeles.  At the age of four, she was drawn to the stage like a moth to the flame, and spent more than twenty years dancing and performing in musical theater.  At sixteen, she was plucked from a school talent show, and so began her career performing in Television and Film.  In 2008 she turned her creative attention to writing and developing TV show concepts, and has enjoyed much success.
Shantelle also gives back to her community; she chaired her first solo endeavour supporting Sheena’s Place in March 2012.  Co-chaired The Purple Party for Childhood Cancer Canada in November 2013, 2014 2015 and 2016.  Her involvement has helped them raise over a million dollars to date.  She also sits on their committee for awarding scholarships to kids who have survived cancer.  She supports Camp Ooch through fundraising, and visiting with the kids at camp in the summer.  In November 2016 she and her husband emcee’d their bi-annual gala, where 1.2 million dollars was raised to send kids with cancer to camp.  She also supports Bridgepoint Hospital, via their annual fundraiser, “The Heist”, and was the M.C for their 2014 annual Gala, Fandango.  Shantelle and her husband also give generously to the APJ fund, supporting kids in Haiti, and sit on their advisory board.
 She recently joined forces with Boost for Kids where her duties will include Honorary Chair over the next three years, as well as being MC for their 2018 Butterfly Ball.
And, just to keep busy, she is still writing, developing, shooting and producing her own projects for television.  Along with being a writer, producer and actress, Shantelle has three beautiful daughters, and two four legged sons with husband, Yannick Bisson, star of Canada’s number one drama series, CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries.  She can also be seen on CBC’s new daytime talk show, The Goods, as one of their parenting experts.
She is also working on a series of non-fiction “how to” books; and is currently shopping the first in the series, titled: HOW TO RAISE YOUR KID WITHOUT LOSING YOUR COOL.
Recently Shantelle has become a staff writer for Canadian online, and print magazine, Milk N Heels tackling all topics parenting, and relationshipshe will also be answering any and all parenting and relationship questions twice a week on the site as DEAR ELLE.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Book Review: Straight Shooter (Pretty Thieves, #3) by Samantha Keith

Straight Shooter (Pretty Thieves, #3)
Title: Straight Shooter (Pretty Thieves, #3) 

Author: Samantha Keith 

Stars: 3 1\2

Review:
Short, fast pace sexy romance with just enough action to keep suspense readers intrigued.  Like all of Samantha Keith the stories move along fast pace than a choice or action a character does causes the whole story to come to a halt.  The romance is steamy and takes over most of the short under 200 page book. The story is a stand alone novel. Reader will not need to play catch up from the other two books in the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Samantha Keith Straight Shooter.

Synopsis:
Thief extraordinaire Peyton Risk is hired for a very simple mission: Find an envelope aboard a Florida Senator’s yacht. With the envelop in hand, she’s caught before she can jump ship. The Senator’s under a microscope after his nephew’s involvement with the murder of a prostitute. He orders the guards to do whatever it takes to make Peyton confess who hired her.

Undercover FBI agent Rhett Callahan’s assignment is at risk when a thief is found on board the Senator’s ship. When he’s ordered to kill Peyton, he’s forced to abandon his mission and get Peyton off the ship alive. A storm brews outside but it pales in comparison to the feisty, less-than-grateful strawberry-blonde.

The questions surrounding the Senator grow along with the body count. They race against time as danger closes in at every turn. The net of twisted killers is thick, tangling the web of deception tighter the closer they get to the truth. Keeping the information secure is as difficult as avoiding the temptation that blazes between them.


ebook194 pages
Expected publication: April 14th 2020 by NetGalley Connect

About The Author:

https://www.amazon.com/Samantha-Keith/e/B07D8J39BY%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

https://samanthakeith.co/

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Book Review: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Little Secrets
Title: Little Secrets 

Author: Jennifer Hillier 

Stars: 5

Review:
I must confess that I have not read any of this author's previous books and that is my loss. This author takes the reader through a range of e I'mmotions which will leave them wondering what else could possibly occur. With the kidnapping of her young son, just before Christmas, our heroine leads the reader down a path of emotions that include panic, loss, despair, bitterness, drugs, adultery, and the hiring of a contract killer to resolve her problems. I could go on but believe this story must be read to be fully appreciated. To go on would reveal too much. But keep your eyes peeled for subtle clues scattered throughout like daises 
In a meadow.

I have rated this book 5 stars and would recommend it to any reader who appreciates a keen exploration of their inner self emotions.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.
Thank you Frank for the Review.

Synopsis:
a mother driven to the edge by the disappearance of her son learns her husband is having an affair with the woman who might have kidnapped him.
Four hundred and eighty seconds. That’s how long it took for someone to steal Marin Machado's four-year-old son.

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family. Up until the day Sebastian is taken.

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman.

Kenzie Li is an artist and grad student—Instagram famous—and up to her eyeballs in debt. She knows Derek is married. She also knows he's rich, and dating him comes with perks: help with bills, trips away, expensive gifts. He isn't her first rich boyfriend, but she finds herself hoping he'll be the last. She's falling for him—and that was never part of the plan.

Discovery of the affair sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek's lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.

Hardcover352 pages
Expected publication: April 21st 2020 by Minotaur Books

About The Author:
Jennifer Hillier writes about dark, twisted people who do dark, twisted things. Born and raised in Toronto and a proud Canadian, she spent eight years in the Seattle area, which is where all her books are set.

She loves her son, her husband, the Seahawks, and Stephen King. Not equally, but close. She's the author of five novels. Her newest psychological thriller JAR OF HEARTS, is available now from Minotaur Books.

Learn more about her at jenniferhillierbooks.com

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Book Review: Copycat Killer by Laura Scott

Copycat Killer (True Blue K-9 Unit: Brooklyn #1)
Title: Copycat Killer 

Author: Laura Scott

Stars: 3 1\2 

Review:
This is a ok start to a new series by Laura Scott and while I am not 100% sold on the story it will have readers as to what the author has in store for the next book in the series.
The story is your basic police procedural with romance thrown in here and there.  
For those looking for a clean romance looking for something that is Harlequin Romance without all the graphic sex  this series might just be perfect for you.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Laura Scott CopyCat Killer.

Synopsis:
Murder strikes close to home

for a new K-9 unit in Brooklyn

When a double homicide is strikingly familiar to a twenty-year-old cold case, Detective Nate Slater is rattled by the parallels. With a child as the only witness, he and his K-9 partner must protect little Lucy and her aunt, Willow Emery. Nate’s rough past means he always keeps an emotional distance…but in this case getting closer is the only way they’ll all survive.
 


Kindle Edition
Expected publication: April 1st 2020 by Love Inspired Suspense

About The Author:
find a heartwarming journey of faith amid the thrilling danger. She lives with her husband of twenty-five years and has two children, a daughter and a son, who are both in college. She works as a critical-care nurse during the day at a large level-one trauma center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and spends her spare time writing romance. Visit Laura at www.laurascottbooks.com.

Also writes as: Laura Iding

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Sanity Where is it and when will it be coming back?

Disclaimer I am tried have learning disabilities so my grammar, spelling and process will not be the best. So read between the lines or ask me a question. 

I am sure I am not the only one who questions their sanity.  I mean after all kids no kids, married not married, singe or dating.  At some point during then Pandemic you have to be questioning your sanity otherwise you are "Not Human" as my son would say.
A Fake Pandemic”: Anti-Vaxxers Are Spreading Coronavirus ...
The Virus That Shall No Be Named
I have talk to men, women, married, single, kids and no kids and the same thing comes up constantly.
Do you think this is a little over kill?

I have though those same words in my head along with "Can I just get Covid 19 and get over it already."

The more I research the more I have learned that anyone and everyone has a graphic to explain what is going on and to point to the reason why theirs is so much better than others.  Do I trust the President? Nope I am pretty sure he is looking out for his bottom line.  Do I trust the Doctors? Yes the ones who are in the trenches treating and dying along side there patients.
Sorry, Mick Mulvaney. I can't 'get over it.' - The Washington Post
Well Let me Put it This way
Did I think it was over kill at one point? Yes.
When did I change my mind? When The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints shut their doors and brought home millions of missionaries from all over the world.  Oh and Disney shut down their parks.  Both Groups will lose millions if not billions of dollars from their actions. That is when I realized this was real and wasn't going away.  Over Kill Nope!!

Why can't I get it and get over it already.  I am sure many of you who do not have a personal connection to COVID 19 have felt that way.  I can say I have a friend who is a nurse who developed it and said "This is nothing to joke about.  I get the flu every year because I am in the ER and no matter the protection of shot I always get one of the strains. This is completely different.  I am on week three and I can finally get out of bed without passing out from exhaustion. I do not have any going against me but age and the fact I am a nurse."

Here is where she and i are different I am 41 years old with a rare autoimmune disease that required me to take steroid pills every day (FYI I should be taking around 20 mg a day but it makes my anxiety worse so I only take max 7 mg.) and one a week injection of Methotrexate of 10 mg. (I should be taking 15 mg but it make me nauseous to the point I can't get off the couch  without wanting to throw up. I was suppose to be up to 25 mg of the injection but I can't make it past 10 mg.) 
Next I have Asthma.  I have had this since I was 2 years old.  As I grew they thought I had grown out of it until I had gotten the flu in my teens and ended up needing my inhaler again.  Not to mention every couple of years bronchitis makes an appearance.  
Australia's Science Channel | Take the panic out of pandemic
What were they thinking!  I am crying at all the toilet paper
That is why I can not just get it and get over with it. My Dr said people in my positions now that is anyone from age 20 to 75 years old take the medications and have the same mixed connective tissue and are healthy like me have a 70% chance of dying from COVID 19!
YES THAT IS 70% of DYING!!!
I have a 30% chance of developing lung issues if I do get Covid 19
and small 10%chance it will throw me back to the beginning of my treatment where I was in so much paint I couldn't sleep, eat, walk or live a life.  I would have to go on Biologic and stay on the same medication I am on now!!
mixed connective tissue disease – Don't Abbreviate Me
Guess what this is 100% true for anyone with MCTD
NOPE I can't get it and get over it.  Bummer Right!!  I am high risk with 4 kids at home, 3 fish, a dog and a Husband who work in clothing industry and is constant contact with people.
He wears a mask everywhere an every time he goes into work. The second he gets home he jumps in the shower and will not allow me to wash or touch his clothing.  He worries every time he goes into work that he will bring home COVID 19. (More men are dying than women FYI!)  I can't imgaine the stress he is feeling daily.  
Media hysteria, Fortnite overkill and trying to stay sane in self ...
I LOVE MY FAMILY Please Stay home for me!
My sanity has left the body.  
When someone says is this over kill Remember someone like me has a 70% chance of dying leaving behind 4 children 13, 11, 9 and 7.  A Husband of 17 years and a life unfinished.

Is it over killer? NO FREAKING WAY!!!


Thursday, April 9, 2020

Book Review: Deadly Surrender (The Serafina: Sin City #5) by Katie Reus

Deadly Surrender (The Serafina: Sin City Series Book 5)
Title: Deadly Surrender (The Serafina: Sin City #5)

Author: Katie Reus 

Stars: 4

Review:
Katie Reus has a way of taking Romance and turning it into a face pace action all the while showing readers two characters they will fall in love with. Book 5 of The Serafina series readers meet Logan and Grace.  Out of all the stories in this series I have to admit personally this story readers will be able to connect with the best. The tried and ture story telling of two friends that love each other so much they can't lose the friendship they have developed.  Grace tries hard to keep her heart safe only to realize she lost it to Logan a long time ago.
The story flows naturally all while dodging bullets and cars trying to kill them.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author Katie Reus for the advance copy of Deadly Surrender.

Synopsis:
Good old-fashioned heartbreak sent Grace running to Las Vegas for a new start. There, she has the support of a college buddy and her social group, which includes Logan…funny, sexy, protective Logan MacNeil. They’ve become close friends, but that’s all Grace is willing to offer. Logan’s a known player, and Grace has been hurt enough for one lifetime, thanks. Getting left at the altar will do that to a woman.

Logan’s reputation is more than a little exaggerated, and he’s never cared. Until Grace. She’s worth risking his heart again, if he can convince the brave, independent woman he’s not the playboy he seems. Right now she needs a friend…and a protector. Someone has already targeted them both—twice. Logan suspects he gained an enemy for his part in his boss’s recent failed business deal. But until he’s sure, he’s keeping Grace close. Achingly, torturously close… And when things turn deadly, he’ll lay everything on the line to make her his.


Kindle Edition
Expected publication: April 7th 2020 by KR Press, LLC

About The Author: 
Katie Reus
Katie Reus is the New York Times, USA Today, & IndieReader bestselling author of the Red Stone Security series, the Moon Shifter series and the Deadly Ops series. She fell in love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her mom's stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as she loves writing it. However, she didn't always know she wanted to be a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated with a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love. Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Book Review: Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) by Lynda La Plante


Title: Buried (DC Jack Warr #1)

Author: Lynda La Plante

Stars: 4

Review:
Buried is the first in a new series with characters that are based in England which for some readers when it comes police procedural books they have to remember that in police do things differently.
It took some time to getting used to the author writing style as well as well as the list of characters that seem to come out of the wood work.
The story is interesting enough to finish but not quite sure it is the best beginning to a new series.
At times readers will be a little lost in the terminology and reason for why the characters do what they do.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy of Lynda La Plante Buried 

Synopsis:
London to start a new life together. Though charming, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down.

In the aftermath of a fire at an isolated cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remains of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes.

Jack's search leads him deep into a murky criminal underworld - a world he finds himself surprisingly good at navigating. But as the line of the law becomes blurred, how far will Jack go to find the answers - and what will it cost him?


Kindle Edition352 pages
Expected publication: April 2nd 2020 by Zaffre

About The Author:
Lynda La Plante (born Lynda Titchmarsh) is a British author, screenwriter, and erstwhile actress (her performances in Rentaghost and other programmes were under her stage name of Lynda Marchal), best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.

Her first TV series as a scriptwriter was the six part robbery series Widows, in 1983, in which the widows of four armed robbers carry out a heist planned by their deceased husbands.

In 1991 ITV released Prime Suspect which has now run to seven series and stars Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. (In the United States Prime Suspect airs on PBS as part of the anthology program Mystery!) In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote at TV movie called Seekers, starring Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson.

She formed her own television production company, La Plante Productions, in 1994 and as La Plante Productions she wrote and produced the sequel to Widows, the equally gutsy She's Out (ITV, 1995). The name "La Plante" comes from her marriage to writer Richard La Plante, author of the book Mantis and Hog Fever. La Plante divorced Lynda in the early 1990s.

Her output continued with The Governor (ITV 1995-96), a series focusing on the female governor of a high security prison, and was followed by a string of ratings pulling miniseries: the psycho killer nightmare events of Trial & Retribution (ITV 1997-), the widows' revenge of the murders of their husbands & children Bella Mafia (1997) (starring Vanessa Redgrave), the undercover police unit operations of Supply and Demand (ITV 1998), videogame/internet murder mystery Killer Net (Channel 4 1998) and the female criminal profiler cases of Mind Games (ITV 2001).

Two additions to the Trial and Retribution miniseries were broadcast during 2006.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Book Review: Voice with No Echo by Suzanne Chazin

Voice with No Echo
Title:  Voice with No Echo

Author:  Suzanne Chazin 

Stars: 4 1\2 

Review:
Suzanne Chazin uses current events to create the background for Voice With No Echo. Most author wouldn't take on the complications of current events, with a large cast of characters and location that are all intertwined to the point everyone at some point will meet. The author is able to keep readers focused to keep from getting lost in the story.

As a readers I found myself lost when it seemed we had already met certain characters in another series or book.
Suzanne Chazin is a top notch Mystery\Thriller writer that this reader will need to go and find her other books.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a advance copy of Suzanne Chazin Voice With No Echo.


Synopsis:
It's spring in Lake Holly, New York, a time of hope and renewal. But not for immigrants in this picturesque upstate town. Raids and deportations are on the rise, spurring fear throughout the community.

Tensions reach the boiling point when the district attorney's beautiful young bride is found hanging in her flooded basement, an apparent victim of suicide. But is she, wonders Vega? If so, where is her undocumented immigrant maid? Is she a missing witness, afraid to come forward? Or an accessory to murder?

Vega gets more help than he bargained for when Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends an investigator to help find--and likely deport--the maid. It's Vega's half-sister Michelle, the child who caused his father to leave his mother. Now an ICE agent, Michelle tangles with Vega and his girlfriend, immigrant activist Adele Figueroa. The law is the law, Michelle reminds Vega. And yet, his heart tells him he needs to dig deeper, not just into the case but into his past, to a childhood terror only Michelle can unlock.

While Vega searches for the demon from his youth, he discovers one uncomfortably close by, erecting a scheme of monstrous proportions. It's a race against the clock with lives on the line. And a choice Vega never thought he'd have to make: Obey the law. Or obey his conscience. There's no margin for error .




Hardcover352 pages
Expected publication: March 31st 2020 by Kensington Publishing Corporation

About The Author:
Suzanne Chazin is the author of two mystery/thriller series. Her “Jimmy Vega” series, about an upstate New York cop navigating the world of the undocumented, “hits the heart, not just the pulse,” raves Lee Child. The books are based on Chazin’s outreach work with the undocumented. Publishers Weekly called Land of Careful Shadows (book #1), “timely and engrossing,” and Jimmy Vega, “engaging, psychologically complex.” The book was chosen by the American Library Association as one of the five best mystery books of the year. "A Blossom of Bright Light (book #2) was an "Amazon Best Mystery of the Month." (Book #3) "No Witness But the Moon" was called one of the ten best books of 2016 by the NJ Star Ledger.
Chazin’s other series stars FDNY fire investigator Georgia Skeehan. The Fourth Angel (book #1), Flashover (book #2) and Fireplay (book #3) have been called, “searing and emotionally explosive” (USA Today), and her heroine, fire investigator Georgia Skeehan, “incredibly strong” (People Magazine). The series is based on Chazin’s husband’s work as a high-ranking chief in the FDNY.

Disclaimer for all reviews sent by the publisher, publicist or author for review.

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