Tag Archives: review

April 28, 2021 · 7:00 am

Cracking The Harmony Code: Nature’s Surprising Secrets for Getting Along While Getting Your Way by Camilla Gray-Nelson (Book Review)

Print length, 190 pages

In Cracking the Harmony Code, award-winning entrepreneur and best-selling author, Camilla Gray-Nelson, reveals Mother Nature’s secret code for achieving personal and professional goals. Using “influence through instinct,” she guides you up Nature’s Harmony Pyramid to its pinnacle of success, peace and happiness.

Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ B&N
Add to Goodreads

 

I received a complimentary copy of this book from
iRead Book Tours.
I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 

Introduction:

There were several fascinating animal facts in this section of Cracking The Harmony Code: Nature’s Surprising Secrets for Getting Along While Getting Your Way by Camilla Gray-Nelson. For example, I had no idea “ravens call their friends by name” or that “horses feel shame.” It makes you wonder how researchers discovered these two things. 

Also found in this section, Camilla Gray-Nelson admits she’s failed many times over in life. However, she’s learned from her mishaps. In life, that’s how we move forward in a positive way. We learn from our failings/mistakes and strive not to make them again. 

 

Part One & Part Two:

Trust is essential in any relationship. It’s the building block in any relationship. Without it, the foundation is not solid; therefore, harmony can not be achieved. It makes complete sense why trust is the first tier on The Harmony Pyramid in Cracking The Harmony Code: Nature’s Surprising Secrets for Getting Along While Getting Your Way.

This book discusses how to handle many personal and workplace obstacles. 

*looking for a raise

*handle workplace drama

*underperforming workers

*losing authoritative control

*disrespectful child

*trouble with the spouse

*and the list goes on…

Some solutions to work or at-home problems are pretty much common sense. Be firm, but be fair. For example, if your child doesn’t listen, then restrict access to their favorite activity. Yelling, at home or at work, is never the answer. It does not yield the results you’re looking to achieve. 

While not everything will apply to everyone, I think most people could benefit from one section or another. If you’re a new parent, recently married, or about to be either of those two things, check out the areas about how to keep things copacetic in your home. If you’re new to office life or in a management role, Camilla Gray-Nelson might have the key to help you achieve harmony in the office.

Please pick it up, and use it anytime you’re feeling unbalanced in life. Maybe it’ll get you back on track to living a more harmonious life. 

 

Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤1/2


Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ B&N
Add to Goodreads

 

Meet the Author: 

Author by Camilla Gray-Nelson

Best-selling author and award-winning entrepreneur with a company consistently listed in the Top 15 Women-Owned Businesses in Northern California, Camilla Gray-Nelson has a leg-up on her competition. Raised and living on a farm, Camilla credits her business success today to the lessons she learned from Mother Nature in her childhood! Combining a keen knowledge of animal behavior and her awareness of the human animal’s inner instincts, she reveals Mother Nature’s paradigm to all women who seek their own success at work, parenting and love. She shares the animal secret of Influence through Instinct, to more cleverly succeed in getting what we want in our professional as well as personal lives, while at the same time, maintaining precious Peace and Harmony. . . two seemingly endangered species in today’s chaotic world!

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook ~ instagram
 
 

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April 22, 2021 · 7:00 am

Caroline And Mordecai The Gand: A Fantasy Novella by Jeff Gunhus (Book Review)

Reading age: 8 – 18 years Grade level: 4 – 12 Print length: 126 pages

Content Rating: PG: The language is G. There is one scene with the main character punches a bully resulting in a bloody nose. The emotional treatment of grief and the death of a loved one can be somewhat intense.

 

This novella was written by USA Today bestselling author Jeff Gunhus after he received a devastating diagnosis of state 3 cancer. The story is a message to his five children on how to deal with grief and a plea for them to grasp onto joy and love even in the darkest of times.

Caroline loses her spark. It takes a great adventure for her to find it again.

Caroline loses her father in a car accident for which she feels responsible. Consumed by grief, she has a difficult time readjusting to a world that has changed so dramatically for her. On the anniversary of her father’s death, a strange window opens in the middle of the small lake behind her house. She climbs up an old oak to peer inside, but falls out of the tree and discovers that the window also serves as a door into a different world.

Enter Mordecai the Gand, a mysterious traveler who befriends Caroline and promises to help her find a way back home since the window she fell through has disappeared. The two set out on a series of adventures that include visiting a tree village populated by a tribe known for eating travelers, running into a witch under a spell of her own making, hiding in a cave with a dragon encased in a wall of ice (prone to melting by campfire), all the while being pursued by a mysterious entity call the Creach which promises to devour Caroline and trap her in an eternity of despair.

As they navigate these adventures and this new world, Caroline slowly discovers that she is meant to help each of the characters she meets. As she battles internally whether to stay or return home to the sadness and grief waiting for her there, she must regain perspective and open her heart to the act of caring and to the joy of love itself. In the end, she must demonstrate great courage, loyalty, and caring as the plot unfolds, becoming the active hero of her own story.

Amazon Purchase Link 

 

 

 

I received a complimentary copy of this book from iRead Book Tours.  I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 
Caroline & Mordecai the Gand by Jeff Gunhus’s target audience was intended for middle-grade students, but I became immersed in Caroline’s emotional journey, and I’m in my 40s. Like Caroline, my father died when I was young. And like her, I carried a lot of guilt surrounding his death. 


Grief is complicated at any age, but I feel kids have a more challenging time handling a personal loss because, sometimes, they aren’t able to articulate their feelings. Heck, even adults have trouble with the task. 


Jeff Gunhus did an outstanding job depicting the internal struggles people of all ages face when dealing with loss. 


I adored everything about Caroline & Mordecai the Gand. It made me smile, and it made me cry. Jeff Gunhus made me reflect on my father, a voice I can’t hear anymore but a face I’ll never forget. 


Would I recommend this book? Yes. This book’s audience extends past middle-school. It will touch many hearts. 

 
 
Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤❤❤

 


Meet the Author

Author Jeff Gunhus

 
Jeff Gunhus is the USA TODAY bestselling author of thriller and horror novels for adults and the middle grade fantasy series, The Jack Templar Chronicles. The first book, Jack Templar Monster Hunter, was written in an effort to get his reluctant reader eleven-year-old son excited about reading. It worked and a new series was born. His books for adults have reached the Top 30 on Amazon, have been recognized as Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Finalists and reached the USA TODAY bestseller list.

Jeff wrote Caroline & Mordecai the Gand after receiving a devastating diagnosis of stage 3 cancer. The novella was meant as a private story for his five children on how to face grief by holding onto joy and love. He leads an active life in Maryland with his wife Nicole by trying to constantly keep up with their kids. In rare moments of quiet, he can be found in the back of Old Fox Books in Annapolis working on his next novel or on JeffGunhus.com.

 
connect with the author:  
website  ~  twitter  ~  facebook 
instagram ~ goodreads ~ bookbub
 
 

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April 18, 2021 · 7:00 am

The Nucleus of Reality: or the Recollections of Thomas P— by L. A. Davenport (Book Review)

The truth is all around you

Thomas P— is exhausted. He’s been travelling for work so much he barely knows where he is. And then, while waiting for a table at a restaurant, he sees someone from his past. Exactly as she was twenty years ago, when they first knew each other. Deeply shaken, he tries to carry on as if nothing happened.

But when it happens again, in a different restaurant, in a different city, Thomas’s world begins to unravel. Haunted by a magnificent black parrot and a past he wants to forget, he becomes paranoid, unsure whether he can trust himself and the world around him.

After he sees another friend he thought he had forgotten, he realises he is lost and alone, and afraid of his own mind. Then an enigmatic woman tells him he is not seeing things but rather his memory has been mined to create life-like androids that are replacing the human race one by one.

And then he is arrested.

Will Thomas resist the mysterious woman and get his life back? Or will he join her cult and take up arms in the fight to save us all?

The Nucleus of Reality, or the Recollections of Thomas P—, is the story of a man trying to remember why he ended up losing everything but himself.

 
 
 

(review request submitted by the author for an honest critique)

 
I decided to write my review in the format of an acrostic poem using only the first four words of the book’s title, The Nucleus of Reality. I hope the snippets pique your interest and you purchase The Nucleus of Reality: or the Recollections of Thomas P— to figure out how everything below ties together. Trust me, you’re in for a mind-bending ride. 
 
These are not the droids you are looking for…
Hero?
Electrons
 
Neutrons
Unsure how to proceed
Conference audience goes “baa.” 
Let me look inside your mind.
Eyes are always watching you, Thomas P.
Under arrest
Save the world! 
 
Old Testament
Face the truth
 
Round-faced bald man
Eww, grey food.
Androids
Lucy?
I want to scan you. 
Typewriter
You are having the weirdest, most vivid dreams, Thomas P.

 

As I stated in my opening paragraph, The Nucleus of Reality: or the Recollections of Thomas P— will twist your mind up like a pretzel. I had no idea how it would end. That’s what I look for in a book — unpredictability. The Nucleus of Reality: or the Recollections of Thomas P— was far from predictable. 
 
Well done, L. A. Davenport. Well done indeed! 
 

Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤❤  

 
 

 

 

L. A. Davenport is an Anglo-Irish author.

He sometimes lives in the countryside, far away from urban distraction, but mostly he lives in the city. He enjoys long walks, typewriters and strong black coffee.

L. A. Davenport is the author of the novels The Nucleus of Reality and Escape, the collections No Way Home and Dear Lucifer and Other Stories, and the memoir My Life as a Dog.

Twitter Link
Website Link

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April 12, 2021 · 7:00 am

Cleo Can Tie A Bow: A Rabbit and Fox Story by Sybrina Durant (Book Review)

(Ages 3-7), 38 pages

 
Cleo loves bows. She wears her hair in a bow and decorates her room with bows. Cleo is bow crazy. Learning to tie a bow is very difficult for some people but Cleo remembers how to do it from a cute story she once heard. It is about a little rabbit with very long ears and a very helpful fox who shows her what to do to keep them clean.
 
This is the story of how Cleo learns to tie a “bunny ear” bow. Exercises in manual dexterity build self-esteem in children. Knowing how to tie shoe-strings, scarves and more into a bow is a useful and rewarding skill.
 
“Teach a child a useful skill. Build confidence and self-esteem that lasts a lifetime.”
 
Other books in the “Learn To Tie With The Rabbit and the Fox” series are the book with that name in English, Spanish and Tagalog plus “Nellie Knows How To Knot A Neck Scarf” and “Ned Knows How To Knot A Neck Tie.”
 
Buy the Book
Amazon
add to goodreads
 
 
 
I received a complimentary copy of this book from iRead Book Tours. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 
My 5yo niece loved Cleo Can Tie A Bow by Sybrina Durant from the very start. When she saw Cleo had her hair tied up in a bow, she asked if I could tie her hair up as well. My attempt didn’t look half as adorable as Cleo’s. Pumudi Gardiyawasam, the illustrator, did a marvelous job creating such a cute, perfect bow. Pumudi, along with Sybrina (the author), did a remarkable job explaining both in script and imagery how to tie a bow. The close-up images will become helpful when my niece decides to forgo velcro shoes and finally get lace-up sneakers. 🙂

After we finished reading Cleo Can Tie A Bow, we looked up the link at the end of the story. The link will direct you to the author’s YouTube channel, where there are several videos with Cleo singing about tying a bow. This added feature will help young readers feel more connected to the story and cause many ear-worms for kids and parents. 😀

Would I recommend Cleo Can Tie A Bow?
Yes, for grades preschool through second.

 
 
Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤❤❤
 
Buy the Book
Amazon
add to goodreads
 
 
Sybrina Durant
 
Author Sybrina Durant
I’ve been writing creative and technical works for years. Many of my songs are on Youtube and Itunes. Two of my books are available as ebooks online. They are “Learn To Tie A Tie WIth The Rabbit And The Fox” and “Sybrina’s Phrase Thesaurus”.

 website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ instagram ~ goodreads

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April 2, 2021 · 7:00 am

When the Sun Met the Moon by Simran Mohinani (Book Review)

(Ages 3-7), 38 pages

 

In this enchanting tale of the origins of the Sun and the Moon, the Sun flies across the universe on an adventure to look for someone whose light matches his own. When the Sun Met the Moon is a story filled with so much love, excitement, and equality that you won’t want to put down, and can be told for years to come. After centuries of brightening up the sky by himself, the poor Sun is exhausted, lonely, and in need of some help. So, he decides to search the galaxies for someone whose light is as strong and powerful as his to help him shine down on the people of Earth. When the Sun decides to take a holiday to go on this adventure, Earth is left with its first-ever nighttime where the sky goes dark and cold, leaving people afraid to come out of their homes. Will the Sun be able to find somebody whose light is equal to his? Find out in this gorgeous love story how the Sun met his perfect Moon.

Buy the Book
Amazon ~ B&N ~ BAM
Mascot Books

 

 

I received a complimentary copy of this book from iRead Book Tours.
I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 

I want to begin my review of When the Sun Met the Moon by congratulating Simran Mohinani and Leo Hartas on their sweet, lovely cover. It immediately captured my five-year-old niece’s attention. She adored the smiley faces drawn on the sun and moon. 

While I thought the story was cute, her attention remained on the images. 

She loved the kitty cat sitting in the window and the stars which lit up the night sky. The sun and the moon kissing made her giggle. Every-single-time. 🙂 

Even though she wasn’t too engrossed by the words on the pages, she enjoyed the pictures and wanted to draw a starry scene. I believe in time she’ll be reading me the story. 

For now, any book that makes her laugh is a winner in my book. Plus, it inspired her to create a work of art. Another win! 

Would I recommend this book? Yes. 

 

Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤❤

Amazon ~ B&N ~ BAM
Mascot Books

 

 
Simran Mohinani, otherwise known as Simi Moh, was born on September 8th, 1998. She is a graduate of Northeastern University, studying entrepreneurship with a minor in global fashion. She was born and raised in Hong Kong, and now lives between there, London, and Boston. She first worked for the United Nations with their environmental conservation team before also collaborating with Amazon, Marriott, and Snupps. She published her first trilogy of books comprised of poetry and short stories which are very successful. She now owns and runs three of her own businesses in the fields of consulting, denim supply, and commercial goods. She also has her own charity: The SiMission. After college, she also worked full-time at her family business, which deals with properties in Europe. On the side, she still loves to write, which came to fruition with When the Sun Met the Moon, for your enjoyment and pleasure.
 
connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads
 
 

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