library

Footprints – Crissy Moss

Angela2 Comments

A fantastic short story, a man deals with the grief, loss, and emptiness after the death of his father. Losing a loved one is never easy, and to have them taken from you for reasons beyond a natural death of old age after living a long life makes it sometimes impossible to accept and heal from. I cannot tell you too much without giving away key points and spoilers to this story. It is a bit supernatural, a lot suspenseful, and well worth the read. I will definitely be getting Crissy’s other short stories, compiled into a book, when my reading list gets a little bit smaller!

Footprints Cover Image

It is titled “Small Bites: The Complete Collection”, and can be found on Amazon. Be sure to check this collection out!

You can visit her website here:

Friday Feature – Author Andrea Hintz!

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Andrea Hintz Profile Picture

Andrea Hintz has loved writing her whole life. She began college at the age of thirteen and graduated at seventeen with a Bachelor’s in Public Management and Administration. Having endless stacks of books, she has a particular interest in fiction genres that contain lots of adventure and take her to other places of the world. She has written many books, including the books in The Tesoro Series. Andrea also plays the guitar, sings, and has written notebooks and notebooks full of songs and book ideas. Her favorite books were very special to her growing up, and she believes that if at least one reader feels that way about her work, she will have successfully done her job as an author.

Tesoro Book 1 Cover Image

You can find Tesoro I: Secrets of the Hidden Treasure Book on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Tesoro-Secrets-Hidden-Treasure-Book-ebook/dp/B00M2C545U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416519722&sr=8-1&keywords=Andrea+hintz

Tesoro II: Secrets of a Captain’s Journal was released on November 2, 2014. Now is the perfect time to grab both books at once!

Be sure to visit Andrea’s Website, found here: https://sites.google.com/site/andreahintzauthor/home

The Mystery of Orcival – Emile Gaboriau

Angela2 Comments

What a great book, by an author I have never heard of. Emile Gaboriau lived and died in the 19th century, and writes in the style that you would liken to Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved Sherlock Holmes.

Orcival Cover Image

Monsieur Lecoq is a detective of rare form, the kind whom not the tiniest fact can slip past. He lives in France, and the crime thtat took place at Orcival is complicated, full of twists and turns, and certainly a great read, if you are into those kinds of stories.

I would not say it was an easy read by any means, but I did enjoy the story, and am glad that I read it. Detective Lecoq does much more than assist the local police as they try to figure out a baffling crime of murder, mystery, and deceit. They know that one murder has taken place. But there may be as many as three, since key players are missing, presumed dead, and Detective Lecoq is not buying it.

This is a story where you will need to adjust your “reading” for the nuances of stories written in the 19th century, where instead of “Monsieur”, you will see M. I have another of Emile Gaboriau’s Lecoq stories to read, but that will not be happening anytime before Christmas.

Do you enjoy these types of stories, written “way-back-when”?

The Wychetts – William Holley

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This was a great, quick read full of laughs and not complicated in the least. This is definitely a YA series (this is book 1) or at least 4 or 5 that are published, with the promise of more titles to come.

The Wychetts Book 1 Cover

The story focuses on Bryony, a presumed teenage girl and her father, Bill. Bill is newly married to Jane, who brings along with her a 10 year old son, Edwin. Bill takes it upon himself to purchase a new family home for all of them, sight unseen. I chose to ignore the fact that no one in their right mind, or any mind, would ever do this. He did not even get the seller’s name or any information. Okay, so we are just going to move along and ignore the clearly impossible things happening here, and enjoy the story for the fun read it is meant to be. This house, called Wychetts (pronounced Witchitts), was created 500 years ago to ensnare the magic from the Guardians, to be used by the Dark One.

Bryony and Edwin are of course 2 Guardians, and Bill buying the house was not by accident. It was all planned in order to take the magic from the guardians and use it for evil.

There is nothing too scary here, and I would definitely let my 10 year old read it. Other than some talk of overgrown spiders, I did not see anything that would be of concern to young readers or their parents. I read it easily in a few hours, and will definitely read the other ones published to date. If you have young readers in your home, these books would be great gifts!

Visit there website for more information here: http://www.wychetts.com/Wychetts/Wychetts.html

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If you missed my Thursday post and the chance for the free Amazon gift cards, be sure to go check it out and register to get your name in the drawing. There’s a couple few days left and I would love a great turn-out for this give-away before my next one 🙂 You can find it here: https://booksandopinions.com/2014/11/06/give-away-1-for-your-holiday-season/

Give-Away #1 for your Holiday Season!

Angela19 Comments

Here it is – my first official honest-to-goodness-free-stuff-for-you giveaway! I will be doing several of these through the end of the year, as it moves into one of my favorite times of the year, Thanksgiving and Christmas! I have so many things to truly be thankful for, including my children, my health, my family, my job, my church, my friends, my pets, a warm home to live in, and food in the cupboards. I absolutely believe that it is better to give than to receive. Nothing gives me more joy than buying a special gift for someone who is not expecting it, and who I know will truly appreciate it. So whatever holidays you may be celebrating in the upcoming months, let me help you do so!

 Amazon $25.00 Gift Card

So first up, I have two $25.00 Amazon gift cards. I was going to do a $50.00, but I figured that maybe I can help someone give a gift to someone else as well. So there are 2 for one lucky winner, you can keep them both, give them both away, or share one! I am a huge fan of Barnes and Noble gift cards, but with so many of my readers and writers using Amazon as platforms for their books, I figured this will give you a great opportunity to buy even more books!

So, all you need to do is follow this blog, leave a comment on what you would use your gift card(s) for, fill out the Rafflecopter form, and we will get this underway!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0dcc89d91/

Goodreads Choice Awards 2014

Angela6 Comments

I received my annual email recently that Goodreads was opening up their voting for the 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards. I like to go through all of the books and see if there are ones I have read, any of my new favorite authors, or something that catches my eye that I may want to read.

Goodreads Choice 2014 Logo

So I was curious as to how many of you do the same thing. Do you actively use Goodreads? I have been much better about logging in on a regular basis, and need to get to the point that I am checking in every day; which as of late, I have been.

The voting tends to be a long, tedious process, at least with my internet connection. Lately everything is long and tedious and I do not know if it is the 2 laptops we use in my house or the internet service. When I am trying to do my MBA homework, help my daughter with her homeschooling, write book reviews, update my blogs, check email…you get the picture…I have been wanting to chuck my laptop right in the garbage.

Sorry; I got off track.

So the voting has everything in their own categories, so it does keep it nice and organized. You also have the option of writing in a book, and I honestly have a couple books in mind that I may do this for, because I read them this year and they were fantastic, and deserve to be in this competition.

Do you vote? Have you written in a book you loved and wanted it recognized? Have you ever known one of the authors on the list? Have you been on the list?

What do you do for the categories that you do not read, such as if you do not read science fiction, or romance? Do you just pick one that you like the looks of the cover or the title? Do you think that is fair to the authors? (I am just curious, I have no hard-and-fast rules or feelings about this platform of voting for books).

I think Goodreads is a great resource for readers and writers alike, and will likely be adding some books I come across to my bookshelf.