Book Tour and Review: Scattered Petals by Amanda Cabot

Scattered Petals by Amanda Cabot (Texas Dreams #2)

Publisher: Revell

Publish Date: March 2010

Paperback, 384 pages

My Review:
A beautiful story about recovery and following God's will, Scattered Petals is a story that will stick with me for awhile.

The second book in the Texas Dreams Trilogy, Scattered Petals can easily be read as a standalone.  The characters from the first book are in this book, but I didn't feel like you have missed out on anything.  I will be reading Paper Roses though because I want to know Sarah and Clay's story and Ms. Cabot's writing is  wonderful and a great addition to the christian historical romance genre.

I thoroughly enjoyed Priscilla and Zach's story.  Priscilla has so much to overcome and yet she is strong, not whining.  Zach has a past and he's a brooding character until Priscilla comes along and through the book they help each other change for the better.  A wondrous romance and well-built story.  I really enjoyed the time frame also.  I never thought I was that interested in history, but I like learning a little bit through historical romance.  I was not familiar with the time period when parts of Texas were first being settled, but this book has enlightened me some and I will be looking for more books set in this time frame.

If you are looking for a great getaway for an afternoon, I highly recommend Scattered Petals. 

About the Book:

Longing for adventure, Priscilla Morton leaves Boston in 1856 and heads for the Texas Hill Country, never dreaming that the adventure she seeks could have heartbreaking consequences. Although attracted to her, ranch foreman Zachary Webster knows Priscilla deserves a cultured East Coast gentleman, not a cowboy who's haunted by memories of his mistakes.

When necessity draws them together, Priscilla and Zach begin to forge a life filled with promise. But then the past intrudes.

Book 2 of the Texas Dreams series, Scattered Petals weaves a tale of drama, love, and second chances as beautiful as the Hill Country itself.

About the Author:
Amanda Cabot is an accomplished author under various pen names and a popular speaker. The author of Paper Roses, she is also a charter member of Romance Writers of America, the co-founder of its New Jersey chapter, a member of the ACFW, and an avid traveler.

 

Available March 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Thank you to Donna Hausler at Revell for sending me this book for review. 

Book Tour and Giveaway: Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs

Here Burns My Candle
by Liz Curtis Higgs

It’s been 4 years since Liz Curtis Higgs’s last novel, and she’s made good  use of that time studying Scottish history and the Scriptures. And now she offers a retelling of the beloved Old Testament story of Ruth and Naomi set in 18^th Century Scotland. Visit the Lowlands in Here Burns My Candle.  

View the trailer for Here Burns My Candle here. 


My review for this book will be coming next week - I'm slightly behind but trying to catch up.

Summary:  

A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.

Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.
    Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.
    His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.
    One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.
    A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.

Author Bio:

LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is the author of twenty-seven books with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist. Visit the author’s extensive website at www.lizcurtishiggs.com.


Purchase the book online:

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781400070015

This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

Giveaway:

Waterbrook Multnomah has provided me with one copy of Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs to giveaway.  Simply comment to enter.  Additional entries for following (rss, email, blogger, networked blogs, etc.), tweeting (1 per day), posting on your blog (sidebar is fine).  Please comment for each entry - it makes the accounting easier.   Giveaway open to US/Canada only.  Don't worry if you are first or last - I'm starting to randomize all entries before using random.org to draw a number - so it's more like drawing a name out of a hat.  Giveaway runs through April 2, 2010.

Excerpt from The Mayo Clinic Diet : Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose Weight.

Thank you Anna Suknov for sending me this excerpt to post.  I currently am reading They Mayo Clinic Diet and I am getting ready to start using the Journal that goes along with it.  It's time for me to get that extra 20 lbs I've gained over the last few years off.  My health is improving and it's time to lose this weight.  From what I have read so far, The Mayo Clinic Diet is full of sound advice, and what else would you expect from the very esteemed Mayo Clinic.  Here's an excerpt about eating out, what to eat and what to avoid.  It's very helpful if you ask me.

Your Guide to Healthy Ethnic Cuisine
By the weight-loss experts at Mayo Clinic and Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H.
Authors of The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose weight.

These suggestions will help you savor the exotic, while keeping calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium under control.
Chinese

Look for: Stir-fried (ask to have it prepared in little or no oil) or steamed dishes with lots of vegetables, steamed rice, poached fish, and hot and sour soups.
Avoid: Fatty spareribs, fried wontons, egg rolls, shrimp toast and fried rice. To limit sodium, ask that your food be prepared without salt or monosodium glutamate (MSG). Request soy sauce (high in sodium) and other sauces on the side.

French

Look for: Steamed shellfish, roasted poultry, salad with dressing on the side, and sauces with a wine or tomato base, such as bordelaise or à la Provençal.
Avoid: French onion soup (high in sodium; high in fat if it has cheese), high-fat sauces (béchamel, hollandaise and béarnaise), croissants and pâte.

Greek

Look for: Plaki (fish cooked with tomatoes, onions and garlic), chicken kebabs (chicken broiled on a spit with tomatoes, onion and peppers), or a Greek salad.
Avoid: Dishes with large amounts of butter or oil, such as baba ghanouj (eggplant appetizer) and baklava (dessert made with phyllo dough, butter, nuts and honey). To limit sodium, avoid olives, anchovies and feta cheese.

Italian

Look for: Marinara (tomatoes with garlic and onions), Marsala (based in wine), clam sauce and pasta primavera with fresh vegetables and a small amount of oil. Simply prepared fish and chicken dishes also are good choices.
Avoid: Pasta stuffed with cheese or fatty meat and dishes with cream or butter sauces. Veal scaloppine and parmigiana (cooked with Parmesan cheese) contain added fat.

Japanese

Look for: Steamed rice, soba or udon noodles, yakisoba (stir-fried noodles), yakitori (chicken teriyaki), shumai (steamed dumplings), tofu, sukiyaki, kayaku gohan (vegetables and rice).
Avoid: Shrimp or vegetable tempura, chicken katsu, tonkatsu (fried pork), shrimp agemono, fried tofu (bean curd).

Mexican

Look for: Grilled fish, shrimp and chicken with salsa made of tomato, chilies and onion. Order corn tortillas (they're lower in fat and calories than are flour tortillas) as long as they aren't deep fried. For a side dish, order rice or beans (black, pinto, refried). Make sure your side dishes aren't cooked with fat or lard -- ask your server about this.

Avoid: Dishes with large amounts of cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. Chips also can add a lot of fat and calories.

The above is an excerpt from the book The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose weight., by the weight-loss experts at Mayo Clinic and Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.
Reprinted from The Mayo Clinic Diet, © 2010 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 
About Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. He is also an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. A specialist in nutrition and weight management, Dr. Hensrud advises individuals on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. He conducts research in weight management, and he writes and lectures widely on nutrition-related topics. He helped publish two award-winning Mayo Clinic cookbooks.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy that the needs of the patient come first. Over 3,600 physicians and scientists and 50,000 allied staff work at Mayo, which has sites in Rochester, Minn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, Mayo Clinic treats more than 500,000 patients a year.

For more than 100 years, millions of people from all walks of life have found answers at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic works with many insurance companies, does not require a physician referral in most cases and is an in-network provider for millions of people.For more information, please visit www.goodbooks.com/mayoclinicdiet.

Absolute Power by David Baldacci (Audiobook)

Absolute Power by David Baldacci

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Publish Date: January 1, 2010 (originally published in 1996)

Unabridged Audio CD, 17 CDs

My Review:
First things first - I love David Baldacci.  I started with an audiobook of his from the library.  It was the first one in the Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series, Split Second (which I did not know was part of a series) and then lucked up when the next one I listened to was Hour Game.  Since then I have working my way through his backlist and when the opportunity to listen and review his first book came up - I jumped at the chance.

The first thing I loved about this audiobook is the foreward by the author that tells how the story came about.  Some of Mr. Baldacci's comments had me laughing.  The second thing is the reader, Scott Brick.  I love Scott Brick as an audiobook reader.  To me he does a wonderful job on each book he reads and I actually search him out when looking for a new audiobook.

As for the actual story - it's complex and amazing. If I had been reading it, I would have kept turning the pages.  I often sat in my driveway a few more minutes to listen to more of the book.  It's very entertaining and dark.  The fun was just when I thought it was getting predictable, it changed a little bit.  This is fast-paced suspense at it's best.  The characters that are the good-guys are likeable and you find yourself cheering for them.  The bad guys are sufficiently bad.  And there are few in-between characters that are bad but just doing what they have to.  This book is a good look at how the choices you make can affect your future and the choices you have to  make then.

If you like suspense, then you are in for a treat.  Note there are some graphic scenes, but the book is not loaded with sex.  There is also some profanity, but I didn't find it in abundance (or else I learned to tune it out, I'm never sure which).  Overall it is a wonderful book that will keep you interested until the very end.

About the Book:
A riveting debut novel of murder, honor, loyalty, and betrayal that reaches all the way to the Oval Office. A vicious murder involving the president and his mistress results in a coverup orchestrated by the zealously loyal chief of security and the Secret Service. But, unbeknownst to the president and his lackeys, one unlikely witness saw everything. Will Americans learn the truth?

About the Author:
David Baldacci lives in Virginia where he and his wife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. He invites you to visit him at www.david-baldacci.com and his foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org.

FTC Information: I received this book from Hachette Books for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

Booking Through Thursday - March 25 - Break

Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)

It's been awhile since I participated in BTT, but I thought I would join back in this week.

I do take breaks from time-to-time.  It depends on how the book is.  If it's just not gripping me at the moment, I will set it aside and come back.  Sometimes I have to set a book aside to read one for a review.  I try not to do this because I find myself confused when I come back to the book, but sometimes I just have to.

So what do you do?  Comment here and also see the main BTT post for what others are saying.

The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Publish Date: January 7, 2010

Hardcover, 192 pages

My Review:

Rating:  3.0/5.0

I wanted to really like this book - it's a very interesting premise and the cover is stunning.  And I did like this book, but the problem was I didn't love it.

I think the problem was I wanted more.  The Secret Year told the story of Colt who had a secret relationship with a very popular upper class girl and he's just an ordinary lower class boy.  When Julia dies suddenly, Colt feels lost but he can't say anything to anyone because no one knew about their relationship.  Then Julia's brother shows up with her diary and he knows about the relationship but he wants Colt to have the diary.  As Colt read the diary things in his life begin to change and he starts to look at things differently.

I honestly think it's just me - I think this is probably a truly wonderful book to other people.  It's a little dark and gritty and as I said before a very interesting premise.  I liked the look at Colt's life and Colt as a character himself was great.  I think I wanted and expected more of the diary and a little more drama.  I think this book is a simple and haunting book that will appeal to many. 

It is well-written and I will definitely read Ms. Hubbard again, but overall it just wasn't something that will stand out in my mind.  But please don't rely only on me - check out other reviews of this book and see what others felt.  This may be just the book for you and if it was or is, then let me know in the comments.  I would love to know what you saw in this book.  Maybe I just missed something.

About the Book:
Seventeen-year-old Colt has been sneaking out at night to meet Julia, a girl from an upper-class neighborhood unlike his own. They’ve never told anyone else about their relationship: not their family or friends, and especially not Julia’s boyfriend.When Julia dies suddenly, Colt tries to cope with her death while pretending that he never even knew her. He discovers a journal she left behind. But he is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept.

About the Author:
See Jennifer's Blog here.  See her website here.

Other reviews of The Secret Year:

reader rabbit
The Page Flipper
Frenetic Reader
Persnickety Snark
Not Enough Bookshelves

FTC Information: I received this book from Around the World Tours for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

 

Spring Reading Thing 2010

When I first started blogging last year, The Spring Reading Thing was one of the first things I joined in on. It is hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days and it's really simple (and that's what I like about it).   All you have to do is make a post and read and then if you can make a follow-up post in the end.  It's really that simple.  For more thorough information and to sign up yourself, head here or click the button above.

Here is a start on my tentative list.  I am currently in a reading slump so I hope I can get back to reading.  It's a tough time of year.  We're starting our garden, our youngest is playing t-ball and my oldest has a lot going on in school.  But I will make time to read.  My goal will be 30 books.

I will update here as I finish books for this challenge.  I look forward to see what everyone else is reading - this is always a time of year that I add tremendously to my tbr pile!

1. ttyl by Lauren Myracle - finished 3/29
2. Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus - finished 3/31
3. Asking for Trouble by Sandra Byrd - finished 4/6
4. Sworn to Protect by DiAnn Mills - finished 4/8
5. White Cat by Holly Black - finished 4/10
6. A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis - finished 4/10
7. Double Love by Francine Pascal - finished 4/11
8. Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze - finished 4/15
9. Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason - finished 4/17
10. True Blue by David Baldacci - finished 4/18
11. Hush by Kate White - finished 4/20
12.  Love Will Keep Us Together by Ann Dayton and May Vanderbilt - finished 4/21
13. Flaherty's Crossing by Kayla McFerrin - finished 4/22
14. Secrets of the Playboy's Bride by Leanne Banks - finished 4/23
15. Caught by Harlan Coben - finished 4/25
16. Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves - finished 4/30
17. Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard - finished 5/4
18. Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson - finished 5/5
19. Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson - finished 5/7
20. When Lightning Strikes by Meg Cabot - finished 5/8
21. Scream by Mike Dellosso - finished 5/9
22. The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova - finished 5/11
23. Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline - finished 5/24
24. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon - finished 5/28
25. Never Let You Go by Erin Healy - finished 5/30
26. Welcome to Harmony by Jodi Thomas - finished 5/30
27. The Ark by Boyd Morrison - finished 5/31
28. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares - finished 6/3
29. Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase - finished 6/5