Shakespeare's Lady

by

Alexa Schnee

ISBN: 9780824945282

Paperback, 360 pages

Releases April 1, 2012

Summerside Press

I received the uncorrrected proof of this book from Summerside Press, I decided to try to review it.  I have never been a Shakespeare fan of any of his work.

Emilia is one of the most beautiful ladies at court when she met William Shakespeare and they fall in love.  They had their ups and downs as all married people do.  They do stay together and have to fight for their lives before they found their way from the London streets to the throne room of Greenwich Court to the stage of The Globe Theater where William begin his career as a poet alone with his lady Emilia who had expired him to do his best work.

As we all know William Shakespeare became a poet in the history books and he is stutied in all school, but as always there was a woman behind this famous man urging him on, and that lady was Emilia Bassano.

About the Author:

This link will carry you to a review done by "Today's Teen Writter's blog" http://todaysteenwriter.com/author-interview-alexa-schnee/

  Alexa Schnee, you can read about this young writter http://alexinksit.com/2010/10/14/is-shakespeare-really-shakespeare/

We are giving away three skeins of Twee Stripes Yarn in Mixed Berries. The deadline to enter is February 1, 2012 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time. We’ll send an email to the winner, so please check to make sure your email address is entered correctly. You’ll get an extra entry for EACH of the following (that's THREE free extra entries):

 

Kregel Publications Blog Tour

of

  

Unhallowed Ground

by

Mel Starr

ISBN: 9780857210586 

Paperback, 240 pages
Monarch Books

Overview

Thomas atte Bridge, a man no one likes, is found hanging from a tree near Cowleys Corner. All assume he has taken his own life, but Master Hugh and Kate find evidence that this may not be so.

Meet the Author

Mel Starr was born and grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After graduating with a MA in history from Western Michigan University in 1970, he taught history in Michigan public schools for thirty-nine years, thirty-five of those in Portage, MI, where he retired in 2003 as chairman of the social studies department of Portage Northern High School. Mel and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and seven grandchildren.

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER HERE

MY THOUGHTS:

As this is the fourth chronicle of Hugh de Singleton surgeon, I am starting at the end of the story but that is ok as I begin to read it all fell into place.

When Thomas atte Bridge that no one like was found hanging from a tree everyone thought he had taken his own life, but Master Hugh thought other wise.  He though that the man had been murdered and he was going to find out who did it.  As he was beginning his investigation he didn't want to get any one else involved as they all had been harmed one way or other by Thomas.  

The vicar would not allow Thomas to be buried in the church graveyard as they all believed he had taken his own life so he was buried at the edge of Gilber's pasture.  Before they had cut Thomas down from the tree Master Hugh had noticed some twigs stuck to his shoes and after he was on the ground he noticed his lip was swollen and a tooth loose.  He also pulled his sleeves up and saw what looked like a rope mark on his wrist and a man that took his own life would not have tied his own wrist.

So not the chase begins for Master Hugh as he travels around trying to find who the murderer was as he believed now that he had been murdered.

I want to thank Kregel Publications as they included me in this blog tour.  The book was sent to me free and I chose the way I reviewed it.

THE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER

by

Melanie Dickerson

                                               

ISBN: 9780310727613

Paperbaack, 284 pages

Zondervan Publisher

Melanie Dickerson

Melanie Dickerson is the author of The Healer’s Apprentice, a Christy Award finalist and winner of the National Reader’s Choice Award for Best First Book. Melanie earned a bachelor’s degree in special education from the University of Alabama and has been a teacher and a missionary. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Huntsville, Alabama.

My Thoughts:

This book was inspired by the story "The Beauty and the Beast" and as Annabel Chapman was forced into the role of a servant for the beastly Lord Ranulf le Wyse when her family who was once welthy merchants was forced to go into debt.

She is burdened with all the household duties and also had to help harvest the barley stalks and also cook for all the others.  She was having a very hard life and she was forced into doing jobs she had never done before.  Her family also wanted her to marry the Lord so that they could save their home and to keep her brother from having to do hard work.  Seems to me they really used the women in the families to take care of the lazy men and boys.

Lord Ranulf le Wyse was known to terrifying and beastly and the Lord's bailiff, a bad man in his own had made advances on her.  She just wanted out of this house, but with no hope of leaving and she wishes there was someway she could kill the Lord Wyse but could she do this as she knew he needed to accept God and she needed to get closer to God and try to do what he wanted from her.

Thanks so much to Zondervan publishing for sending me this book to review and I did so in my own words.

ISBN: 9781595545053

Paperback, 312 pages

Thomas Nelson Publisher

I received this book free of charge from Booksneeze in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first time reading a book by Nicole Seitz and I enjoyed it mainly because it is filled with Southern charm and I am a southern lady myself.

Ally Green is a flight attentant and had to return to the low country of Charleston, SC to bury her father.  She was also trying to bury her past by going home to Mollasses Creek and her friend Vesey Washington is still living on the other side of the creek and theirs is a relationship that need some work. 

As she is trying to forget her past she begins to think of a young woman on the other side of the world that escapes her world of slavery in the rock quarries on Nepal. There is also another person Sunila Kunari that is wanting to find out about her past also and she finds some of it in a scetchbook that she comes across.  These three people are all drawn to the banks of Molasses Creek and finds God so that they may begin to heal. 

LOVE FINDS A WAY

by

Wanda E. Brunstetter

ISBN: 9781616266707

Paperback, 282 pages

Barbour Publisher

This book consists of three short stories which makes an easy read.  This is the first one of Wanda's books that is not about Amish and is a sweet book about modern day romances and troubles.

Blueberry surprise is about a young woman Lorna Patterson who had worked at least two jobs to send her husband through medical school but he dies she keeps working just to keep herself busy, even though she does not need to work that much anymore.  She had always wanted to be a music teacher and had let her own education fall by the way side for her late husband.  Now she is thinking about going back and starting life over and not in her in-laws home, where she had lived since she had been a widow.

Grandma's Doll is the second and like some of the other reviewers I too liked this one best.  I am a Grandmother and I have always loved dolls.  After Shelia Nickels' grandmother passed away she was going to pick that she wanted for herself from the attic and she choose an antique doll that she had loved to hold when she was growing up.  The doll went missing and as she searched for it she met a young man from her past, now she though maybe she should not have come back to Casper.

Matchmaker 911 is the third story and it finds Wendy Campbell cuttin hair for a living and was so tired of hearding one joke after another.  Wendy is not wanting a relationship but her father wants one for her.  When she cut the hair of Kyle Rogers a young Chritian man she found out this is who her father wants her to date.  He is a pramedic and she does not know if this is who she needs to date.  Is she ready to settle down.

This book is an ok book but now what I expected from Wanda Brunstetter, I have all of her Amish books and this one is written well and the storied are good, but well when you hear Wanda E. Brunstetter you think of Amish.  She and Beverly Lewis were the first authors that I read about the Amish people and that is like watching some of the actors on TV, Andy Griffith for one, you always see him as the sheriff of Mayberry no matter what else he played in and this is the way I see Wanda.  I know there are so many Amish books out there now and new authors coming every day, but these two authors I will always see as writting Amish books,

Thanks so much to Wanda Brunstetter and Barbour Publishing for sending me a copy of this book and I choose to review it.

MISSING YOUR SMILE

by

Jerry S. Eicher

ISBN: 9780736939430

Paerback, 286 pages

Harvest House Publishers

Releases Feb. 2011

Find Jerry on Face Book

I love a good story--authors like Frank Peretti, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Joel Rosenberg, Nicholas Sparks. In grade school I stumbled across Anne of Green Gables and got caught up in its misty charm. I thought for years I must have dreamed the story, because I couldn’t find the book again.

I wrote my first fiction in the eighth grade, because I was bored with a research assignment on Hog Farming. (See story here.) It was not the usual format for such an assignment, but the teacher marked it with an A, writing Very Good across the front page.

I still have the tablet. The words written in red. A big exclamation mark following the Good.
The teacher’s name was Glen Hochstetler. God bless his heart. I know now he could have rebuked me for breaking the rules, dashed my joy into the hard ground. But he didn’t. He praised me, not just in class but in front of the whole one-room schoolhouse.
This mark--of doing what I’m not supposed to do--still follows me. I have written love stories. All while the Christian community is firmly convinced that men cannot understand women.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to break the rules. But I still like it when people mark my paper Very Good. Taken from  http://www.eicherjerry.com/

MY THOUGHTS:
This is the first book in Jerry S. Eicher's new series "Fields Of Home" .  I find this book very interesting about the AMish life and Jerry can tell it as no other because he grew up Amish.  Susan Hostetler left her home after she broke up with her boyfriend Thomas Stoll.  She wanted to get a taste of the Englisha life so she moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey.  She begins to live the full English life and ever bought a car and learned to drive.  Her parents were so sad and upset about her moving away and leaving the Amish life she grew up in.

Susan met a young unmarried woman that was expecting a baby and wanted her baby to be adopted by an Amish family.  When she returns home to help find a family for the baby, she also felt led to move back home and to her Amish way of life.  There was also the young man Thoman still waiting for her, so she was very comfused if about wheather she wanted to return back to the Englisha way of life or just stay where she really belonged. 

Very interesting book as all of Jerry's are.  Thanks so much to Harvest House Publisher and Jerry S. Eicher for sending me this me to read and I chose to post this review.



BLOG TOUR from Tribute Books

of

Lifting the Wheel of Karma

written by

Paul H. Magid

ISBN: 9780984016068

Papaerback, 186 pages

Point Dume Press

Paul H. Magid

Synopsis

Joseph Connell is a gifted high school athlete from Montana, loved deeply by his family, yet tormented by nightmarish visions he can neither explain nor escape.

He believes the answer to what threatens to crush him can be found in the knowledge possessed by a mystical old wise man, who lives deep within the remote Himalayas of India.

If Joseph is ever to find the peace he so desperately seeks, he must get this wise old man to reveal what he truly knows, but that will not be easy…for this sage knows far more than he admits.

My Thoughts:

I received this autographed book from Tribute Books for a blog tour, I am giving my review as well. Thanks Nicole!

As the book begins Joseph at age seventeen in an entangled forest with a sword made of thin steel and a curved handle made form Ivory and with an ornate design. He was dressed in anumal skin as he ran and jumped through the forest trying to get away from his pursuers.

Joseph has always had bad dreams of tormenting, and graphic nightmares that he cannot shake. Then he meets an old man finding peace through Hinduism by the old man, he learns of another life.

I am just not into believing that we had another life before God sent us here on earth through earthly parents, if you read this book and look at it as a fiction then it is a fairly good read. This was my first time reading Paul H. Magid's work and it was very interesting.

LONG TRAIL HOME

by

Vickie McDonough

IBSN: 978-0-8024-0585-2

Paperback, 290 pages

Moody Publisher

Overview


The Long Trail Home is third in a six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896. Although a series, each book can be read on its own.When Riley Morgan returns home after fighting in the War Between the States, he is excited to see his parents and fiancee again. But he soon learns that his parents are dead and the woman he loved is married. He takes a job at the Wilcox School for the blind just to get by. He keeps his heart closed off but a pretty blind woman, Annie, threatens to steal it. When a greedy man tries to close the school, Riley and Annie band together to fight him and fall in love.But when Riley learns the truth about Annie, he packs and prepares to leave the school that has become his home and the woman who has thawed his heart. Will he change his mind and find the love he craves' Or will stubbornness deprive him from the woman he needs' Through painful circumstances, Riley and Annie learn that the loving and sovereign hand of God cannot be thwarted.


Meet the Author


VICKIE MCDONOUGH is the author of over twenty books including the Texas Boardinghouse Brides series. Vickie’s books have won the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, Texas Gold, and the ACFW Noble Theme contest. Vickie lives in Oklahoma and is a wife of 35 years. She has 4 grown sons and one granddaughter. Visit Vickie’s website: www.vickiemcdonough.com.


MY THOUGHTS:

 

I always love to get my hands on a book written by Vickie McDonough, she just has a way with words that make you not want to lay the book down.

When Riley Morgan arrived in Waco, Texas in 1865 when he returned home from the civil war, he found his parents died and his fiance Miranda married to someone else.  He was needing work and the first job he found was being a handyman in a school for blind children and the only place he had to sleep was in the barn.  But at this point he was glad for anything that would give him a meal.

There was a young woman that lives at the school and cares for the younger children and is very much attracted to the young handyman Riley.  But she had a very bad pass as being a pickpocket and thinks she is unsuitable for Riley.  But, when the owner of the school dies and may be closed by the man that inherits the school.  As Riley and Annie fight to save the school they begin to fall in love but what will happen when Riley finds out about Annie's past.  Riley begins to get closer to God, but can he learn to forgive Annie and accept her as she is now.

 

I want to thank Jeanne from Wynn-Wynn Media for sending me this book for my honest review.

ISBN: 9781450755634

Paperback, 507 pages

Cascada books

Meet the Author


Tom Pollack has spent most of his professional career in the investment business, but his passions for sailing and adventure spawned the entrepreneurial and creative endeavors that ultimately provided the inspiration for Wayward Son.

A former member of the U.S. Sailing Team, Tom served from 2001 to 2007 as the CEO of the Transpac (TP) 52 sailboat racing class. During that time, he collaborated with His Majesty Juan Carlos, King of Spain, in the creation of the professional grand prix racing circuit now known as the Audi Medcup.



Tom's friendship with another TP52 owner, Roy Disney, led to the release in 2008 of Walt Disney Pictures' critically acclaimed motion picture, Morning Light. The film is based on Tom's original idea of documenting the exploits of a group of college-aged sailors recruited to compete against seasoned pros in the Trans-Pacific race from Southern California to Hawaii.



A Southern California native, Tom graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a bachelor's degree in political science. He resides in Dana Point with his wife, Jennifer, and their two children. Tom serves as President of the Mission Basilica School Foundation in San Juan Capistrano and the Chairman of ExplorOcean, Newport Beach's popular nautical museum.

My Thought:

As I love history this book was a really great read.  Near Italy's Mt. Vesuvius there is a building that contains artifacts going back to the earliest reconds of man.  There is only one person that can unlock the doors that open into the chamber.  Amanda James that works in the museum is that person.  But once she gets inside she is really surprised at what she finds. She unveils some truths about a Bibical killer that if this gets out, it could alter the desinty of millions.

This book is a mystery/thriller historical drame that tells vivid tales of the empires that have rose and feel though the ages. Amanda James as an archeologist finds things beyond her wildest dreams as she uncovers the man's story.

I am going to pass this on to my fifteen year old granddaughter that is wanting to be an archeologist when she gets through high school and college.  I am sure she will really enjoy this story.

Thanks so much to GlassRoads for sending me this free copy and I chose to review it.