Review: The Girl Who Could See

The Girl Who Could See

"Fern Johnson is crazy. At least, that's what the doctors have claimed since her childhood. Now nineteen, and one step away from a psych ward, Fern struggles to survive in bustling Los Angeles. Desperate to appear normal, she represses the young man flickering at the edge of her awareness—a blond warrior only she can see. 

Tristan was Fern's childhood imaginary hero, saving her from monsters under her bed and outside her walls. As she grew up and his secret world continued to bleed into hers, however, it only caused catastrophe. But, when the city is rocked by the unexplainable, Fern is forced to consider the possibility that this young man is not a hallucination after all—and that the creature who decimated his world may be coming for hers."

Author: Kara Swanson

Length: 214 pages

Format: paperback, e-book

All her life Fern has been told she is blind to reality—

but, what if she is the only one who can truly see?

I would've loved, and been scared out of my mind, to have been in Kara's brain while she was writing this book. 

I mean there is SO much creativity and imagination. Not only to have this IDEA pop into your brain, but then to sit down and bring this idea to life with pen and paper. (Or a laptop keyboard) It's crazy.

YA dystopian has always amazed me! In my opinion it is an art form ALL on its own. Don't get me wrong, anyone who WRITES is an artist. But dystopian/fantasy authors...that's a whole different level of crazy!!

AND I LOVE IT!!

As someone who's never been super creative or artsy, I admire them SO much!

***

I say all this to tell you this book was something else. 

It's a short book, but I read it in one sitting. Once I was in this world - excuse me - I mean WORLDS, there was no way I could just shut the book. 

I had to see if Earth would become a wasteland, and if the creepy virus thingy would kill every breathing thing...and I HAD to see if Tristan would actually LIVE! 

I mean there was SO much happening on these pages, who in their right mind would purposely step back into reality?! 

BECAUSE there was so much happening it all kind of wrapped up quickly, so that caused the pacing to be a wee bit out of wack. Not much, but I definitely wish I could've had more story.

This story, though fun and imaginative, definitely dealt with a lot of internal struggles.

Fern kept pushing Tristan away because she was told he wasn't real. It was only when she came to the conclusion internally that she loved him, no matter what people thought that she was able to heal and get stronger.

I loved Tristan! Such a hero. He was so sweet, yet in a small way reminded me of a mature Peter Pan. (Is that a thing?!) He was actually really patient with Fern, even when the fate of both his world and Earth rested in the palm of her hand. 

Their love story was interesting, and used a troupe I don't really see a whole lot. (Maybe I don't look for it?)

There was definitely a strong "if you love them let them go" theme to their relationship.

I really enjoyed it and it was a cool sip of water, since I personally don't see it much.

Overall I really liked the story! I kinda think it'd be cool as a movie...🤔

I rated it a 3.5/5 stars.

*I received this book from the author**I was not required to write a review**All opinions are my own*

***

Quotes:

"What a strange perspective. These last years, he'd been the embodiment of my lunacy. Yet I was his sanity."

"What makes you different makes you exceptional, Fern."

Blitz: Teal Paisley Tights

Welcome to the Blog Blitz & Giveaway for Teal Paisley Tights by Barbara Brutt, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! Happy Release Day to this debut author!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Teal Paisley Tights

Author: Barbara Brutt

Publisher: Vinspire Publishing

Release Date: November 15, 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy


Life post-graduation was supposed to see the launch of paisley-loving Jadyn’s art career, or at least an art gallery showing one of her watercolor paintings. Instead, this Pittsburgh native is locked into a low-paying, buttoned-up consultant position with an impossible boss. When another colleague is dismissed, Jadyn inherits extra workload, including the company’s biggest client. If she loses him, she’s fired.

Jadyn people-pleases her way through life, resulting in extra work opportunities and a community classroom of art students. But when two guys appear on her doorstep, she just might not be able to people-please her way out of this love triangle. At the end of the day, she can’t please everyone.

Then, because of a small spending problem, Jadyn is evicted from her apartment, and she must move in with her know-it-all sister. Jadyn needs to decide between a job transfer that would place her near her love interest, or a full-time art career with all its risks.

Stretched like canvas between responsibility and dreams, she must choose. Will practicality always win?

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository


_________________________________________________________

EXCERPT

What was so wrong with fun, patterned tights anyway?

Coffee. Coffee would take the edge off my fun-deprived morning. I slipped my black heels back on and walked out of my cubicle, only to remember that I needed to mail a client some information packets. Two steps back, and I stood over my desk, rifling through papers. I found the envelopes and scooped them up.

The cubicle wall creaked.

Ethan.

He leaned against the fabric-cladded partitioning, and warmth spread across my face. Forget garden gnomes. I wanted a life-sized marble sculpture of him. I imagined him actually leaning his entire weight against the wall, and how it would buckle underneath his pure muscle.

Smile.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Barbara Brutt, a born and raised Pittsburgher, spent her growing-up years with her nose in a book. After claiming her bachelor's degree in English, she plunked down hard into a smattering of jobs from shop girl to communications director with a healthy dose of nanny and house-cleaner. Flying to new adventures is her favorite, especially on an airplane or aerial silk. Barbara adores ice cream and only buys purses that provide room for a book or two.

Barbara talks books, aerial silks, faith, and travel on her website and blog at barbarabrutt.com.


CONNECT WITH BARBARA: website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

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TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive (US only)

• a pair of teal paisley tights (one size fits most)
• $15 Starbucks gift card

Enter via the Rafflecopter giveaway below. Giveaway will begin at midnight November 15, 2018 and last through 11:59pm November 22, 2018. US only. Winners will be notified within a week of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.


Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

Saturday Hop: Why Did You Chose Me?

November is National Adoption Month, and we're celebrating with the Why Did You Choose Me? Saturday Hop and giveaway, hosted by JustRead Tours and Ambassador International! Every Saturday in November, hop along to the different host blogs and enter the great giveaway!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Why Did You Choose Me?

Author: Katie Cruice Smith 

Illustrator: Sarah Strickling Jones 

Publisher: Ambassador International 

Release Date: November 12, 2017 

Genre: Children's Picture Book, Adoption


Most adoptive and foster children struggle at some point in their life with knowing who they are and where they belong. They want to ask questions, and parents need to be prepared with an answer that helps their child feel loved and secure.

After searching for adoption storybooks to read to her own adopted children, Katie Cruice Smith decided that there was a need for more books that parents could read at bedtime to connect with their adopted and fostered children.

In Why Did You Choose Me?, Katie Cruice Smith answers that question in a way that young children can understand. Drawing from her own experience as an adoptive mom to three children, Katie uses the questions her own children have asked to help them see there never really was a choice she knew right away that they were hers.

With beautiful illustrations by artist Sarah Strickling Jones, Why Did You Choose Me? lovingly demonstrates the uniqueness that each child brings to a family.


PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Ambassador International


___________________________________________________________

EXCERPT

Oh, darling, darling child,
You're part of this family!
I didn't care what you looked like,
And you're so much fun to me!

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katie Cruice Smith is a freelance writer, journalist, and editor, and she resides in the Upstate of South Carolina with her husband and three adopted children. Katie is an adoption and foster care advocate, and she and husband are licensed foster parents and the founders of their church’s orphan ministry. She is currently working on a devotional book to accompany Why Did You Choose Me?


CONNECT WITH KATIE: website | Facebook | Twitter

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Sarah Strickling Jones enjoys working with oils, acrylics, ceramics, and printmaking. She creates her artwork and teaches students of all ages from her country home. She lives in Greer, South Carolina, with her husband Darren and four children: Trevor, Peyton, Blake, and Renea. Why Did You Choose Me? is Sarah Strickling Jones’ first illustrated children’s book in watercolor.

CONNECT WITH SARAH: Facebook

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TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive

• a print copy of Why Did You Choose Me?
• "For This Child I Prayed" ornament (more info HERE)

Enter via the Rafflecopter giveaway below. Giveaway will begin at midnight November 3, 2018 and last through 11:59pm December 1, 2018. US only. Winners will be notified within a week of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Follow along at JustRead for a full list of stops/dates!

Blitz: Swimming in the Deep End

Welcome to the Blog Blitz & Giveaway for Swimming In The Deep End by Christina Suzann Nelson, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Swimming In The Deep End

Author: Christina Suzann Nelson

Publisher: Kregel Publications

Release Date: September 25, 2018

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction


A moving novel entwining the many faces of motherly love

Jillian Connors has the perfect daughter: loving and smart, she's an Olympic hopeful with a bright future. But when Gabby becomes pregnant, Jillian fears that future is lost. Worse, she must confront her own secret past and hope the decisions she's made don't drown their whole family.

Gabby can't believe God let this happen to her. She knew the risks, but who thinks about that when they're in love? Now she has to face the consequences--and the disappointed stares from everyone who thought she was the perfect Christian girl. At least she has the baby's father, Travis. Nothing can tear them apart, right?

Margaret Owens had determined dreams for her son. She's furious that Gabby's pregnancy jeopardizes his college baseball scholarship and terrified that Travis will be trapped in a life of struggle and poverty--the life she's tried so hard to save him from. She'll do anything to protect him--even if it means forcing him to leave Gabby.

Stacey Meyers is aching for a child of her own. But the son she was meant to adopt was taken before she could hold him in her arms. It feels like she'll never stop mourning; even the move to this new town hasn't distracted her from the pain. How can she and her husband find peace? Is there any hope of a family in their future?

And in the midst of all this . . . an unborn baby. Whose arms will hold him in the end?


PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Christian Book | Book Depository


___________________________________________________________

EXCERPT 

Jillian Cline

Friday, March 9

The air in the spectator area of Brownsburg High’s swimming pool is nothing short of heavy, but there’s a safety in the thickness. An illusion in the midst of the humidity lulls me into a belief that my daughter is safe, protected from the evil in the world. Maybe that’s why I push her to compete. Maybe that’s why I can breathe in the moisture-rich environment other mothers dread.

Izzy stands on the dive block, her toes curled over the edge, her arms wrapped around her middle as if she’s cold. The horn blows and with a fraction of hesitation, she dives.

And the race begins.

The first in weeks, a postseason meet, and for some reason veiled to me, she didn’t want to participate.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christina Suzann Nelson, inspirational speaker and award-winning author of If We Make It Home, is celebrating the release of Swimming in the Deep End, on September 25, 2018. She writes and speaks about hope after dysfunction. Christina is over the top about her passions, including the stories created somewhere in the twists and turns of her less-than-focused brain. When she’s not writing, she’s working with the Every Child initiative, chasing escaped steers, reading, breathing in the sweet smell of her horse, hiking with her dog, or enjoying her just-as-crazy family.


CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA: website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

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TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive (US only)

• a print copy of Swimming in the Deep End
• $10 Amazon gift card
• Swimming in the Deep End water bottle

Enter via the Rafflecopter giveaway below. Giveaway will begin at midnight November 9, 2018 and last through 11:59pm November 16, 2018. US only. Winners will be notified within a week of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

Review: In Too Deep

In Too Deep

"When the dive team is called in to recover a body from a submerged car, they aren't prepared to find an encrypted laptop--or an unsettling connection between investigator Adam Campbell and the dead accountant. 

Adam turns to his friend Dr. Sabrina Fleming--a professor at the local university with unparalleled computer security and forensics skills--to recover the files from the laptop. But the deeper they dig, the deadlier the investigation becomes. When evidence uncovers a human trafficking ring and implicates members of Adam's own family, he and Sabrina will have to risk everything to solve the case. 

The truth could set hundreds free--but someone is willing to do whatever it takes to silence anyone who threatens to reveal their secrets. Award-winning author Lynn H. Blackburn invites readers back to Carrington, North Carolina, where everything is not as it seems and sinister elements lurk behind the idyllic façade."

Author: Lynn H. Blackburn

Length: 352 pages

Format: paperback, hardcover, e-book, audio

Everything is not as it seems and 

sinister elements lurk behind the idyllic façade

This was my first Lynn Blackburn novel, and it will not be my last. 

This book dealt with some heavier topics, such as human trafficking and dangerous family secrets. Though through it all Lynn kept an upbeat, light atmosphere and she even had me laughing out loud a few times. 

Our lead girl was such a nerd...and I loved her. She was super awkward in social situations, and only really connected with a small group of people. She was brilliant and I really enjoyed seeing how her brain ticked throughout the story. 
Second-hand embarrassment is one of my favorite things. (I know, I know. I'm a strange duck.) Because Sabrina is SO awkward I got tons of second-hand embarrassment through these pages. 

Adam was Sabrina's opposite in every way. He was confident, charismatic and charming. He knew what he wanted, and how to get it. He wanted to be his own man and step away from the stigma surrounding his last name. 

The group of friends in this series is hilarious and I LOVED their banter. They were all so dry with each other, but you could feel their love coming off the page. Their strengths and weaknesses play off each other to make them a dynamic group!

The prayer and trust in God was a pretty big element throughout the story, and it made me so happy. Turning to God in moments of fear and trials was each characters' first instinct. 
I. Loved. It.

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the next book.
I rated it a 4.5/5 stars. 

*I received this book from the publisher for an honest review**All opinions are my own*

Review: Always Kiss at Christmas

A Yuletide Regency Collection

'Tis the season for six lovely and charming Regency romances!

Curl up by the fire, sip your favorite hot drink, and enjoy A YULETIDE REGENCY: six brand new Regency romance novellas by Regina Scott, Sarah M. Eden, Jen Geigle Johnson, Annette Lyon, Krista Lynne Jensen, and Heather B. Moore.


ALWAYS KISS AT CHRISTMAS by Regina Scott

"Mary Rose has one goal for her mother’s annual Christmas Eve party: convince her childhood friend Julian Mayes to marry her. She has always admired Julian. Surely one moment under the kissing bough will convince him they were meant to be together. Newly hired by a prestigious London law firm, Julian is ready to shake the dust of the countryside off his polished boots. But he’s always had a soft spot for Mary. As the danger to her future becomes clear, will one kiss be enough to prove to him how far he will go to protect her?"

***

Today I'm reviewing a short story from a Christmas collection. 

If you've been following my blog for any length of time you'll notice I've been reviewing this amazing Regency series by Regina Scott. And today I'm reviewing another story to the series! 

*insert the squeals* 😍😍

GUYS WE FINALLY GOT MARY AND JULIAN'S BACKSTORY!!! 

What a time to be alive. I have been "patiently" waiting for this story since the beginning of the series. (Lots of chemistry y'all! LOTS of chemistry!)

Seeing a young Julian and Mary is so fun! They are just as witty and just as perfect as ever. I seriously cannot wait for them to get their happily ever after. It's a LONG time coming...

This story is SUPER short, roughly 50 pages or so. It all happens in the span of one day. That being said, if you read the series you'll see it's been going on for years...and the matter is still unresolved. 

It was still so wonderful, and I can't wait to time-hop and see them as adults trying to fight the connection in the next book. (The anticipation is so much fun 😉)

I rated it a 4/5 stars.

*I received this book from the author for an honest review**All opinions are my own*

Review: Romancing the Bride

Romancing the Bride

"Desperate to keep the ranch where three of her children and a husband lie buried, Annie Gephart must marry or sell. Which of the few bachelors in town would consider a surprise proposal to wed a plain widow with a rebellious daughter, a spirited boy, and unpaid taxes--without laughing in her face?

Jacob Hendrix has never fully let go of his ranching dreams despite ending up as a small Wyoming town's marshal. The job wouldn't be so bad, except he's more errand boy than lawman. When Annie proposes marriage without a single coquettish bat of an eyelash, can he commit himself to a woman he hardly knows for a choice piece of property he'd be an idiot to pass up?

But taxes aren't all that threaten Annie and Jacob's plans. Cattle rustlers, crumbling friendships, and wayward children make this marriage of convenience anything but. When they lose what they've sacrificed everything to save, will the love of a stranger be enough?

Romancing the Bride is the first book in the Frontier Vows Series by award-winning Christian romance author Melissa Jagears. If you like heartwarming marriage-of-convenience stories, you'll love this sweet romance filled with endearing characters."

Author: Melissa Jagears

Length: 410 pages

Format: paperback, e-book

Marrying a stranger to save a ranch is one thing; 

losing the land on their wedding day is another.

Melissa is a favorite author of mine. She always writes the most swoon worthy heroes, and amazing romances. 😋 She didn't disappoint in that aspect this go round. However, this was not my favorite book I've read by her. 

While I LOVED the idea of this story, (I love a good marriage of convenience troupe) I didn't connect with any of the characters so I had a hard time getting "involved" in the story.

This book dealt with a lot of grief. Though I UNDERSTAND grief I can honestly say I do not understand the grief of losing a husband AND children. For me personally, as a young reader, the constant pushing away thing grew a tad tedious.

Celia was another character dealing with grief in a way I never did, by rebelling. Again, I've never lost a parent so I couldn't connect.  

I'm not trying to make light of this sort of grief! I just personally couldn't connect with it.

Though it grew a bit overwhelming it was interesting to try and put myself in the shoes of someone deals with grief differently than I do. And try and imagine what it would be like to feel that pain, and how I would react. This book definitely made me think.

I, like always, loved our hero! He was such a wonderful, sweet character. He was a born protector and had the biggest heart. He loved the widowed and the orphaned, and everyone in between.

On top of having the marriage of convenience troupe 😍, there was also a "coming to find her attractive instead of instantly falling in love" troupe. I WAS LIVING FOR IT! 

The bad guys were creepy and slimy, and maybe a few that were snakes in a suit...you'll have to read it and find out. 

In the end everyone got a happily ever after, in a round-a-bout way. I'm a happy camper! 😉

I rated it a 3.5/5 stars.

*I received this book from the author for an honest review**All opinions are my own*