Book Review: Coco and the Little Black Dress by Annemarie Van Haeringen

I saw this book on *Netgalley and was immediately intrigued. Coco Chanel is an iconic figure and I thought to myself a children's book about Coco? Heck yeah!

Little Coco is raised in an orphanage and is made from a young age to feel different and not wanted. In the orphanage she learns to sew and dreams of bigger things. When she is older she makes friends with rich people and soon begins to design her own hats and clothes. Including the iconic "little black dress".

OK so I loved this book. The drawings were wonderful. I loved the look of the fashions and the story of little Coco. I admit though I'm not a fan of the perfume. I know I know! Every woman is supposed to love Chanel #5...but little old me? I just always found it to be...a bit much. But anyway back to the book. I found it fascinating to learn that she was raised in an orphanage even though she wasn't really an orphan. I love that she always wanted more for herself and worked hard for it. And since she was never afraid to be different.

My son didn't do as well with this book. To be honest though he doesn't care about fashion so this book really isn't catered to him. I think this really is better for young boys and girls who care about fashion. Really this is more towards young girls than boys (but some boys may enjoy this book).

I would say 4 out of 5 stars.

*I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion
**This book was read with my special needs son who is severely learning disabled. The review reflects not only my opinion but his as well

Book Review: The Surfer & The Seal by Paul Gallagher

A few weeks ago I was delighted to receive an email from author Paul Gallagher asking me if I could review his children's picture book. I immediately jumped at the chance. The book sounded so cute from his description and I loved that the book is dedicated to his grandson Logan. A portion of each book sold will be donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting the marine environment.

The surfer and the seal is based on a true story. Paul, a surfer who has been going to the beach since he was a little boy, has a special spot he likes to surf at. Along the way he checks out the tide pools and the various sea creatures that can be found in them. When he arrives at his secret surfing spot he finds a seal. Soon he and the seal become friends and everyday the surf together.

First I have to mention the illustrations by Monica Chenglo. They were AMAZING! Such gorgeous vivid colors. My adored all the pictures of the sea creatures and kept pointing them out before I could even begin reading the words on the page. These pictures were perfect for this children's book! I'm a sucker for great artwork.

The story itself is very cute. I love that it teaches children about marine life. Also I'm glad that it teaches children not to be scared of the water. I've met children who are scared of the ocean because of sharks and jellyfish. But this teaches that there are our marine cousins that are friendly and curious about us humans as much as we are curious about them.  Living in Jersey the shore is pretty important to me so I'm glad to read books to my son that feature ocean (even if it is a different one than the one we go to).

My son loved this book. As I said earlier he was pointing out the different sea creatures. He said how he wanted to meet a seal too. He also expressed an interest in surfing. I told him he would have to learn how to swim first.

This was a solid 5 out of 5 stars.



* I received a physical copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion
** This book was read with my severely learning disabled son and my review reflects his opinion as well as mine.

Book Review: Alphabet Everywhere by Elliott Kaufman

Here is yet another book I was lucky enough to snag from *Netgalley. While my son finally knows
his ABC's it is always great to go back over them with him. Especially, with the potentially for the summer back slide.

Alphabet Everywhere is a book that features pictures of the letters of the alphabet. But these are not just ordinary drawings or pictures of the letters. No these are pictures of things that just also happen to make look like alphabet letters. Like two silos next to each other forming the letter M or doorhandles that when looked at just the right angle form the letter B.

I loved this book. I thought it was so creative. It not only helps instill the letters of the alphabet but it encourages children to find them all over the place. My son had the best time afterwards going through the house and finding as many letters as he could, "Hey mom! There is a C over there. Do you see it? My name starts with C!".

My son loved trying to see the letters in each of the pictures. Some were easier than others but he saw them all. When I asked him what he thought of the book. He said he loved it and made me go back through it two more times with him. So even though this book is made for children younger than him he still really loved it.

5 out of 5 stars!!




*I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion
**This book was read with my special needs son who is severely learning disabled. The review reflects not only my opinion but his as well

Book Review: Arrow of the Mist by Christina Mercer

So I joined a reading challenge on goodreads and decided to read this as part of it. I had never seen nor heard of this book before the challenge. But fell in love with the cover and decided to go ahead and buy myself a copy of the book to read for the challenge.

Arrow of the Mist tells the tale of the kingdom of Nemetona. Young Lia's father is poisoned by barbed roots that have begun to invade the kingdom. Lia has a knack for herbs and follows the old ways. She goes on a journey with her grandfather, cousin, and one other in search for a cure for her father. They enter a forbidden land and start a deadly journey in their quest to save Lia's father.

Maybe it was because I was listening to this with the text to speech option on my reader but I didn't enjoy this as much as I had hoped. I loved that Lia was a strong character and had such a close relationship with her father. The journey itself was exciting with many twists and turns.

But something about this just fell a little flat for me. I was hoping for a just a bit more. But that doesn't mean I wont read the second book. In fact I actually kind of want to read the next book. I think one of my problems was the romance (very light). I just didn't believe it or at least it just didn't add to the book. I think it would have done just as well with out that thread. This coming from someone who ADORES romance.

In the end this was a 3 out of 5 star read.

Book Review: Defiance Rising By Amy Miles

I saw this on *Netgalley a while back and loved the cover. Little did I know that I already owned this book. So I figured it was time to knock this off of my TBR pile since it had been sitting there a while.

Taking place in a post apocalyptic world Illyria has never known anything but a world full of destruction. One day after venturing into enemy territory she meets Bastien. A man who irritates her to no end and is totally the opposite of her best friend Eamon. Soon she is faced with deciding between love and destiny to her people.

Ok it has been a few weeks since I read this. The book started off great and really drew me in. I was interested in the world Illyria lived in. I loved that she was a kick ass female. But soon she began to grate on my nerves. I'm a fan of love triangles but this was just an annoying one. I seriously wanted to rip my hair out after a while. It was less a love triangle and more lets force you to be with one person when you want to be with the other and just hurt both guys all around. UGH!!

Rating this book is hard for me. It started off at 4 stars but slowly the rating started to drop for me. By the end of the book I was just glad to be done with it...but then I realized there are two more books. I just don't have it in me for another two. I wish there had been no love triangle to this because truly that is what killed the book for me.

2 out of 5 stars.



*I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Most Read Authors

I wasn't going to participate in this weeks top ten but well...I couldn't resist. I was curious as to what I had listed as my most read authors so I hopped over to goodreads to take a look. It was rather surprising I must say! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish


1.

Christopher Pike - According to goodreads I've read 37 of his books. When I was a teen he was an author that I read everything he wrote. I read them all more than once and did the peepee dance till the next Pike book came out. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I was missing a book or two on there that I read. Might be time to go back for a reread and see how much difference 20 years makes.







2.

Stan Berenstain- 36 books. Well, this one makes perfect sense as the Berenstain Bears books were among my favorite books as a child. I still have a few from when I was little and yes I do read them to my son. In fact one of my earliest memories of reading was me reading a Berenstain Bears book to my mom while we cuddled on the couch. It is a good memory and probably one of the reasons I still love the books to this day.





3.
R.L. Stine- 31 books. Another staple of my teenage years. I was obsessed with the Fear Street books. I only read one or two of the Goosebumps books but they were for younger readers than I was at that time (now of course I don't care what the age is on books I read them all). Again it has been about 20 years since I've read a lot of these.  Also I'm pretty sure I haven't marked all the ones I've read.







4.

Julie Garwood- 29 books. This particular one makes me sad. Garwood used to be my favorite romance author. She wrote the best historical romances. Great alpha male heroes and lovable heroines. But then she decided to move to contemporary romance it just wasn't the same. I know she released another historical a few years back but my understanding is it just didn't have the charm that her older ones had. I've pretty much turned my back to historical romances now that I've lost my favorite author for them.





5.
V.C. Andrews- 25 books. I stopped reading the books under V.C.'s name a long time ago. The ghostwriter of her books at first did a fairly good job. But every book after the Cutler series was pure junk. I made it through a few books of the next two series but it was just not the same. Andrews had a way of creeping you out and keeping you reading. This ghostwriter is just a hack. When I saw a few years ago that he wrote a vampire series under her name I nearly puked. I mean seriously? Vampires? Anyway I WONT be reading any more of the books that come out. VC died many many years ago and to continue to write under her name is all about the money and nothing more.



6.
L.J Smith- 24 books. Ah here is another one that makes me sad. Loved LJ's books so much when I was teen. I read them over and over and over again. Especially the Forbidden Game books. Most people know her for the Vampire Diaries books. And that is where the sadness comes...she no longer writes the Vampire Diaries books. It is sad that she could not retain control of her own creation.






7.
Linda Howard- 24 books. In my 20's I couldn't stop reading Linda Howard she was a favorite for sure. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I read one of her books. Maybe it is time to catch back up. For a while there I couldn't get enough of her books.








8.
Carolyn Keene- 20 books. Ah I fondly remember being in the fourth grade and trying to sneakily read a Nancy Drew book during math. My teacher of course caught me. She was mad/proud that I was reading. My parents didn't even get mad. How can you be mad for a child being so passionate about reading? When I was younger I gobbled up the Nancy Drew books like candy. When I was in 4th grade it was all about Nancy!






9.

Iris Johansen- 15 books. Here is another author from my 20s that I had adored. Unfortunately though she became a bit obsessed with one of her characters and after that I was bored out of my mind by her books. If she ever decides to step out of that cannon and write other books I might start reading again but I'm sick of Eve Duncan.







10.

William Shakespeare- 14 books. Ah, you are surprised by this one aren't you? Well, I was an English Literature major and took 2 different courses focused solely on Shakespeare. So of course I've read a good number of his plays. Some I've read 3 or 4 times (or 7 in the case of Hamlet...this one not by choice). So good old Willy making an appearance on my list seems rather appropriate.

I'm Back!!

Photo by Martin Vorel 

Ok so I've been dying the last two weeks with no laptop or PC. I've been itching to post reviews for all the books I've read. I also have such a backlog of emails to go through. Still no laptop but at least I got the PC up and running. Though I miss my laptop so much. It is sad just how much it broke my heart when I spilled that cup of juice on it. Of course if this had been the first time I had killed a laptop that might have been on thing. But we have a whole graveyard of laptops all murdered by this clumsy chick right here. I think this might have been laptop number 5 or might have been number 6. Either way thankfully the price of laptops has gone down dramatically and hubby has promised that we will get a new one. So till then I'll have to settle for the old desktop computer. Hopefully there will be no killing of that.  The plan for now is to get caught up on posting all my reviews and responding to the overwhelming amount of review requests I've recently received. I'm saying no or putting a hold on most for the time being. Never know when the next problem will crop up...and in my life problems constantly arrive.