The Five Times I Met Myself by James L. Rubart

November 12, 2015

The Five Times I Met Myself by James L. Rubart was a good book just not the right book for me. This book is well written but I just couldn’t get into the story no matter how many times I tried. This was one of those books that is perfect for some people but for me I was just bored with it. I did love the author’s writing and I did like Brock but that is about all that I liked. Because of the fact that this book is super well written I still feel like I can give 3 stars out of 5. I know that there are people out there who will love to this book but it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

About The Book

What if you met your twenty-three year old self in a dream? What would you say?

Brock Matthews’ once promising life is unraveling. His coffee company. His marriage.

So when he discovers his vivid dreams—where he encounters his younger self—might let him change his past mistakes, he jumps at the chance. The results are astonishing, but also disturbing.

Because getting what Brock wants most in the world will force him to give up the one thing he doesn’t know how to let go of . . . and his greatest fear is it’s already too late.

About The Author

James L. Rubart is a 28 year old trapped in an older man’s body, who loves to water ski and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the bestselling, award winning author of seven novels, including his latest, The Five Times I Met Myself. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in eastern Washington.

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Jesusita by Ronald L. Ruiz

November 11, 2015

Jesusita by Ronald L. Ruiz left me a changed person and I still can’t figure out if it for the better or not. Right from the start I felt so bad for all the characters even the ones I didn’t agree or like the things that they were doing. I felt so bad for the things that the characters had to go through just to survive. It makes me sad at some of the things that have been done to immigrants in the past and still happen to them now. It is hard for me to review this book because I was left feeling sad for everything that happened to the characters in the book. I would recommend this book to everyone but know that it might be hard at times to read and even I had to put the book down at times for a few days because it was just too much to read at times.

About The Book

Jesusita is the story of immigrants—legal and illegal—trying to survive in California in the years after World War II. Jesusita, alone and impoverished, struggles to keep her four young children together. Though she finds support from Padre Montes at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, her faith won’t solve her problems, especially those with her daughter, Paulina. Far from home, Filipino laborers are denied by law any contact with white women. Angie, the young daughter of an illiterate and unmarried mother, knows only one way to make money. And Felix, abandoned by his mother and separated from his only brother, is placed in a foster home on an isolated ranch. The interrelated lives of these people provide a complex, sometimes violent, and often tragic image of American poverty within the nation’s postwar boom.

About The Author

After reading Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment at the age of 17, I knew I wanted to be a writer. But I knew nothing about the craft. My first novel, Happy Birthday Jesús, was published 36 years later. Surprisingly, it received good reviews

For many years, I was a criminal defense attorney and at the end of my career a prosecutor, but I always managed to find time to write. What I saw and experienced during those years often serves as a basis for my writing. For me, learning how to write has been a long, continuous and, at times, torturous process.

Now retired, I try to write every day and I feel fortunate that I have found something in writing that sustains me. I’m glad I persevered during all those years of rejection. More than anything, writing about what I see and experience in life has given me a sense of worth.

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Merry Mary by Ashley Farley

November 5, 2015

Merry Mary by Ashley Farley was a super sweet story. This is a short book and I loved that about it. Some books that are short feel rushed and I wish that the book was longer. I loved that this one was just the right size and it didn’t feel like anything was left out or that the story was rushed because the author was trying to keep the book short. I spent the entire time hoping that Scottie didn’t get arrested and sent to jail because she took the baby when she found the mother dead. This was an amazing Christmas story and one that made me remember the reason for the season. If you love amazing Christmas stories than I know you won’t want to miss this book.

About The Book

A young woman longing for a child stumbles upon a Christmas miracle.

Investigative journalist Scottie Darden is photographing the homeless for her Lost Souls series when she makes a discovery that could change her life forever. Under a makeshift tent in subzero temperatures in a downtown city park, she finds a woman’s dead body with her infant child. Without her cell phone to call for help, Scottie makes the split-second decision to take the baby home. Her initial instinct is to provide the baby with food and shelter until her family can be located. But as her fondness for the baby grows, she finds herself facing a life on the run or worse—prison time for abduction.

Curl up with Merry Mary this holiday season. A heartwarming story of the powerful connection between a caring soul and an innocent child in need.

About The Author

Ashley Farley is a wife and mother of two college-aged children. She grew up in the salty marshes of South Carolina, but now lives in Richmond, Virginia, a city she loves for its history and traditions.

After her brother died in 1999 of an accidental overdose, she turned to writing as a way of releasing her pent-up emotions. She wrote SAVING BEN in honor of Neal, the boy she worshipped, the man she could not save. SAVING BEN is not a memoir, but a story about the special bond between siblings.

HER SISTER’S SHOES—June 24, 2015—is a women’s novel that proves the healing power of family.

Look for MERRY MARY this holiday season, a heartwarming story of the powerful connection between a caring soul and an innocent child in need.

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Excerpt

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Murder On Safari by Peter Riva

November 3, 2015

Murder On Safari by Peter Riva was an amazing book to read. This book is a thrill and I love that it takes you out of the United States and puts you into a situation that you most likely have never experienced. I love this because you can really can imagine something like this happening which always makes books better to me. I loved everything about this book and I loved how I felt like I understood what was going on and like I was there with the characters. I am a huge fan of thrillers and this book didn’t let me down in least. If you love thrillers than I know you will love this book as much as I did. If you have read this book let me know what you think of it below.

About The Book

Only a reality TV producer and an expert safari guide can stop a terrorist attack.

Every adventure starts at the fringes of civilization. For expert safari guide Mbuno and wildlife television producer Pero Baltazar, filming in the wild of East Africa should have been a return to the adventure they always loved. This time they’d be filming soaring vultures in northern Kenya and giant sea crocodiles in Tanzania with Mary, the daughter of the world’s top television evangelist, the very reverend Jimmy Threte.

But when a terrorist cell places them in the crosshairs, there is suddenly no escape and they must put their filming aside and combine all their talents to thwart an all-out al-Shabaab terrorist attack on Jimmy Threte’s Christian gathering of hundreds of thousands in Nairobi, Kenya.

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About The Author

Peter Riva spent many months over thirty years in Africa, many of them with the legendary guides for East African white hunters and adventurers. He created a TV series (seventy-eight 1-hour episodes) in 1995 called WildThings for Paramount TV. Passing on the fables, true tales and insider knowledge of these last reserves of true wildlife is a passion.

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Wedding Haters by Melissa Baldwin

October 28, 2015

Wedding Haters by Melissa Baldwin was a fun book to read. It was a nice break from the past couple of books that I have read because they were more heavy so this was a great book to squeeze in. I had a whole range of emotions while I was reading this book and I would lie if I said I didn’t enjoy it. There is something to be said for books that keep things light and easy to read. This is the first book I have read by this author and I have truly enjoyed her writing and this book. There were parts where Madison did get on my nerves because at times she had a super hard time making decisions but that is just because I am 100% the opposite of that. If you love chick lit books than I know you will love this book as much as I did.

About The Book

The exquisite dress, the dazzling menu, the family drama . . . It’s the day every girl dreams of, and Madison Wales is no exception. Her wedding plans seem to be going perfectly thanks to her very talented wedding planner, Sienna Harris. That is, until her grandmother and her two overachieving, bullying cousins suddenly want to become very involved in her big day. But . . . why?
Madison’s perfect wedding dreams are dashed as things slowly start to unravel. With family drama in her midst, she wonders if her cousins are behind each disaster or if she has truly become a paranoid bridezilla.
Will Madison be able to withstand all of the pressure and finally stand up for herself? The idea of eloping with her fiancé, Cole, is looking better everyday, even if it means leaving her dream wedding behind. Will she make the right choice?

About The Author

Melissa graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications; she has always had a love for writing. An avid journal keeper, she fulfilled her dream with her debut novel, An Event To Remember . . . Or Forget.
Melissa resides in Orlando, Florida, with her husband and young daughter. She is a master at organization and multi-tasking. Her daily jobs include mother, chauffeur, wife, PTA President, Fitness Trainer, and now Author.
When she has free time, she enjoys traveling, fitness, decorating, fashion, and taking a Disney Cruise every now and then.

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Birds Of Passage by Joe Giordano

October 27, 2015

Birds Of Passage by Joe Giordano was an interesting book to read. I loved following along with immigrants as they came here from Italy and the things they did once they got here. I did get bogged down in details from time to time because there were tons of characters and at times trying to keep all the characters separate was a challenge. This is a book that you have to pay super close attention when you are reading it so you don’t get lost. Even with all that being said I did enjoy this book for the most part. I did like how the author was able to make me feel like I was there with the characters and I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction.

About The Book

What turns the gentle mean and the mean brutal? The thirst for wealth? The demand for respect? Vying for a woman? Birds of Passage recalls the Italian immigration experience at the turn of the twentieth-century when New York’s streets were paved with violence and disappointment.

Leonardo Robustelli leaves Naples in 1905 to seek his fortune. Carlo Mazzi committed murder and escaped. Azzura Medina is an American of Italian parents. She’s ambitious but strictly controlled by her mother. Leonardo and Carlo vie for her affection.

Azzura, Leonardo, and Carlo confront con men, Tammany Hall politicians, the longshoreman’s union, Camorra clans, Black Hand extortion, and the Tombs prison.

About The Author

Joe Giordano was born in Brooklyn. His father and grandparents immigrated to New York from Naples. Joe and his wife, Jane have lived in Greece, Brazil, Belgium and the Netherlands. They now live in Texas with their shih tzu Sophia. Joe’s stories have appeared in more than sixty magazines including Bartleby Snopes, The Newfound Journal, and The Summerset Review.

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