Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Everlasting Lies Author: Barbara Warren ISBN: 9781460227690 Publisher: FriesenPress Type of book: India, England, 1900s-1920s, cheating, scandals, marriage of convenience, lovers, WWI, making life, secrets, family life Year it was published: 2016 Summary: The novel is about lying Charles Vernon and promiscuous Edina Vernon in a story that spans the years from when Victoria was Queen to 1920. It describes northern England, the soldier's hardships in the trenches, and life with servants in Imperial India. Relationships explode on the pages of this novel. They are real, hurtful, and explicit. The characters are strong, believable and the dialogue convincing. Because of this, Barbara's first novel is animated and provocative. A real page-turner! Both Edina and Charles are living lies. They hurt other people as well themselves. Will they be able to reconcile and trust each other again? The novel shows the hardships yet opportunities for the brave and...

Name of Book: The Errant Hours Author: Kate Innes ISBN: 978-0-9934837-0-7 Publisher: Mindforest Press Type of book: 1266, 1284-1285, England, Wales, uprising, King Edward I, journey, travel, being set up, guilty of association, theft, daily life, disguises, monastery, myths, legends Year it was published: 2015 Summary: A headlong journey through the physical and spiritual dangers of Plantagenet Britain, in all its savage pageantry. Welsh Marches, July 1284 - the uprising in Wales is over, the leader gruesomely executed, the dead are buried. But for Illesa Arrowsmith, the war’s aftermath is just as brutal. When her brother is thrown into the Forester’s prison on false charges, she is left impoverished and alone. All Illesa has left is the secret manuscript entrusted to her – a book so powerful it can save lives, a book so valuable that its discovery could lead to her death. When the bailiff’s daughter finds it, Illesa decides to run, and break her brother out o...

Name of Book:  sense of touch Author: Rozsa Gaston ISBN: 978-0-9847906-2-3 Publisher: Renaissance Editions Type of book: 1497-1500, France, forbidden love, second chances, admiration, class, rank, daily life, herbs, horses, healing, not giving up, growing up, nation above self, Anne of Brittany Year it was published: 2016 Summary: The court of Anne of Brittany, wife to Charles VIII, then Louis XII, brought the glories of the Renaissance to France. To many, however, this achievement was overshadowed by her inability to give the kingdom an heir. Fifteen-year-old Nicole St. Sylvain, new to the queen’s court, possesses a healing sense of touch—a talent she demonstrates when caring for one of the queen’s stallions. Nicole’s ability does not go unnoticed by Anne. Nor does Nicole herself escape the admiring gaze of nineteen-year-old horse trainer Philippe de Bois—the man Nicole loves but cannot have. An arranged marriage makes any hope of happiness impossible. When...

Name of Book: The Lobby Author: Randi M Sherman ISBN: 9781460278116 Publisher: Friesen Press Type of book: Hotel, hour-by-hour, multiple characters, California, travel, experience, business, high school reunions, fame, humor, comedy Year it was published: 2016 Summary: Welcome to The Shipley Hotel, where the perky and attentive staff provides the gold standard in artificial concern and comfort to all the colorful characters who pass through its polished brass revolving door and find themselves in The Lobby. Practically engineered for eavesdropping, San Francisco's juiciest hotel lobby offers the perfect place to witness the comings and goings-and the most comedic intersections-of staff, long-term residents, and eclectic guests. Featuring over fifty stories all transpiring in a single twenty-four hour period and intersecting in the Shipley's elegant lobby, readers will meet an eccentric and vast array of characters, most of whom will look awfully familiar and...

Title of the book: Bossy Flossy Author: Paulette Bogan Publisher: Henry Holt and Company Publishing Date: 2016 ISBN: 978-1-62779-358-2 Summary: Flossy is the bossiest girl around. She's bossy at home and she's bossy in school. She's bossy with her friends, and sometimes she's even bossy to her teacher! Well-meaning Flossy doesn't understand why no one will listen to her. Then Flossy meets Edward, a boy who is just as bossy as Flossy. But the collision of these two strong-willed forces has a surprising result: they learn how to be a friend. Buy the Book:    Amazon ,  Barnes and Noble ,  Book Depository ,  Chapters Indigo Author Info: (From iRead Book Tours) Meet the Author: ​ Paulette Bogan admits she was bossy as a child. She is the author and illustrator of  Virgil & Owen , which was chosen as one of Bank Street Best Children's books of the Year 2016,  Virgil & Owen Stick Together , which won a Mom's Choice Award Go...

Name of Book:  The last relicuin Author: Hargus Montgomery ISBN: 9780989965408 Publisher: Self published Type of book: futuristic, 22nd century, recreation, museums, glassers, science fiction, dystopia, 12th century, power, battles, survival, France, schools, enemies, politics, history Year it was published: 2013 Summary: In the 22nd century, twelve percent of the world's population chooses history. Safe inside the guarded borders of living museums, museum dwellers resist attempts by Metro leaders to seize their lands and force them back to the cities. When Alexander Kane, (son of a powerful Metro Senator) leaves the protection of the City to enter the Federal Museum Academy, he becomes the target of a growing political struggle. Crossing borders into the 12, 18th, and 20th centuries, The Last Relicuin follows three generations of a family torn between the past and the future. Characters: There are a lot of characters, but here are the important ones; In begin...

I would like to thank Amy Koko for taking the time to write this lovely guest post  One of the questions I receive most since my book has been published is, “What did you learn from the experience?” Well, first off, I learned DO NOT have the big Congrats! You sold your book! party until you actually have the contract in hand. So embarrassing having to give back the Chihuly fountain pen and the beautiful leather bound journal and all the other gifts presented to me at the party, after the first deal fell through. Luckily, another deal appeared and was successful, but you know, by then the bloom was off the rose. Another very hard lesson I learned is that just because your book is on Amazon, does NOT mean you are going to get a movie deal and get to meet Meryl Streep and be on the Ellen show. My book came out and I immediately blasted it out on Facebook and Twitter. Then I waited for the phone calls, shout outs, inquiries. I did have the local neighborhood paper call me...

Title of the book : there's been a change of plans; a memoir about divorce dating and delinquents in midlife Author:  Amy Koko Publisher: Martin Brown Publishers Publishing Date: 2015 ISBN: 978-1-937070-62-5 Summary: Blogger Amy Koko bears her soul in her witty, bittersweet memoir, There's Been A Change of Plans: Divorce, Dating & Delinquents in Mid-life. Expecting a trip to Italy, Koko is blind-sided by her husband’s confession that he’s been putting his shoes under a much younger and prettier woman's bed. After twenty-seven years of marriage and four children, she faces the unimaginable: her life as she knows it is unraveling around her and her family’s future is anything but certain. In the literary tradition of Nora Ephron's Heartburn and Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Koko’s memoir details her journey from hearing the news that her husband is in love with a blonde, thirty-something Swiss pastry chef to trying everyth...