In Grandma's Attic and More Stories From Grandma's Attic

As a little girl Arleta never would have guessed what her grandma was up to when she was her age. That is, until she discovered the secrets hidden in her grandma's attic. Everything she found sparked a tale of Grandma's life in simpler times and a life lesson her grandma had learned. A quilt square reminded her grandma to avoid pride. A shoe button inspired a story about honesty. And what was that wire thing Grandma wore?

But the most amazing thing Arleta discovered? Grandma had been a little girl just like she was, trying to be good but often getting into trouble, sometimes without even meaning to! Filled with fun and laughter, Grandma's stories will whisk you away to another time and place.

In the first book of Grandma's Attic Series, In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson, the reader is taken back to the joys and treasures that await a tale of an adventurous life that her grandma couldn't wait to share. Within each object lies a story from the cloth squares that hold a special memory bound up in each one, to an interesting button basket she acquired from an Indian one bleak winter's day. My favorite was Pa and the Dishwater and the fun adventures that happen when a little girl would rather play on a hot day than do her chores. Learn what happened and what she learned in the process. Great conversation starters for us to have with our children to inquire what they would do in these situations!



In the second book, More Stories From Grandma's Attic, the journey continues with the much loved series. In this one, we learned about an old slate, a heart-shaped locket, a rusty trunk and a misspelled sampler. What happens when a pig wears doll clothes? How did Mama escape the cellar when Pa accidentally locked her in? And what exactly was stuffed inside the doll that Grandma found?

I received these books compliments of B & B Media Group for my honest review and LOVED this series. Much like Little House on The Prairie books, this series takes the readers along with a unique blend of story telling when the granddaughter finds objects in the attic and grandma begin to weave the story that lies behind each one. Much like my own children do when they visit with their grandparents this is such a beautiful and heart-warming series, I can't wait for my daughter to read the rest. In each story there is a lesson to be taught and one our children can relate to.

This series is available on paperback and for your favorite eReader, and rates a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. These books are perfect for children ages 5 and up! For even more information about the books, the author and where you can purchase a copy of these books, please click on the link below:

In Grandma's Attic and More Stories From Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson

The Fine Art of Insincerity

Three sisters who have grown up in the Grandmother Lillian's cottage now find themselves back together again but not for a family reunion. It seems that their realtor finally had someone who was willing to purchase the house and they have through Labor Day to take what they want out of the house and clean it out.

On Monday, the realtor will stop by to have them sign the final paperwork, and each of them will receive a check for $200,000 each. Their inheritance as they see it.

Penny plans on using this money to divorce her 5th husband whom she finds as dull and boring. She finds an attractive doctor at lunch who seems more than interested in her, and she seems willing to part ways with husband now she has money to live on and start a new life. She sees herself as her Grandmother Lillian who was married seven times before finding the right one.

Rosemary is married to a wonderful man named Wort who loves riding Harleys, while she tends to all the stray animals she comes across on their ranch. Her latest venture is a racehorse rescue. However when she miscarried her only child, her grief has driven her to seek out her own death and leave the world a much better place now that she won't be in it anymore. Now that she can also leave Wort money from the sell of her grandmother's house makes the invitation all the more inviting.

Ginger is the oldest and most reliable. She's been married for twenty seven years to Michael, a professor and even though they have seemed to have lost most of the passion and romance, Ginger believes they still have love. However, when she needs to contact Michael to have a financial paper signed for their son Ross in college, she is provided with a phone number to reach him. What she discovers will shattered her world when another woman answers the phone and tells Ginger, "I knew you'd find us."



In the novel, The Fine Art of Insincerity by Angela Hunt, the three sisters are at odds and none of them, except for Penny and Ginger will confess what is truly going on in their lives, no matter how they may be judged by the other sisters. Only Rosie, keeps her grief and depression buried and only seeks the solace in spending time with her aging Jack Russell that is on it's last legs. It's a sad story that has brought them together, but will it be enough to heal them?

I received this book compliments of Glass Roads Public Relations for my honest review. This novel is filled with sadness that each of these women feels to need to keep their personal lives from one another at one point in the book. Each of them finds justification in what they believe they are doing but deep down inside know they are all hurting in an emotional and physical way. Their perceptions they have of one another is a far cry from who they really are inside and it will take something life changing for them to finally open up. This one rates 5 out of 5 stars because I could honestly see this happening especially in our culture and generation today, and it's interesting to see how each of them view their situations in their own eyes.

This book is available in paperback and eBook formats. For even more information about this book, the author and where to purchase a copy of this book, please click on the link below:

The Fine Art of Insincerity by Angela Hunt

Hope Rekindled

Sometimes placing your faith in God's Hands, uncertain of where the outcome might be is a true test of a believer.

Just when life seemed to have settled down for Deborah Vandermark and her soon to be husband, Dr. Christopher Clayton Kelleher, that it's about to be thrown for a loop. Just a week before their wedding is planned, Christopher receives a telegram from his family in Kansas City. A tragedy has occurred and he is needed quick. No other details are known since sending a telegram can be quite expensive and his family wouldn't be able to afford much.

Placing trust in God's Hands, Deborah does her best to provide confidence and assurance to Christopher that she will wait for him, no matter what, and that his presence is needed with his family now, whatever has happened. Although she begins to question what will happen to them and their plans for a wedding and a future.

When Christopher arrives in Kansas City, he is more than shocked to see that his family home is nothing more than a pile of smoldering ash. His home has burned to the ground and claimed the life of his mother and father, leaving his five younger siblings behind as orphans. Not knowing how Deborah will handle the responsibility of having a ready made family, he offers up a prayer to God and rests knowing that whatever will happen, won't be a surprise for God.

While Vandermark Logging struggles financially now that the sawmill has burned to the ground, they await the decision of Stuart Albright and Mr. Longstreet to determine whether or not it will be rebuilt. The Vandermarks are locked into a contract with Stuart that prohibits them from selling their logs to anyone but Stuart and right now, he isn't in any hurry to make a decision. He makes it known to Deborah Vandermark, that since her family interferred with his plans to wed Lizzie, his goals are to make them suffer even if it means killing someone in her family, including her.

In the latest book in the Striking A Match series, Hope Rekindled by Tracie Peterson, picks up the story of the Vandermark's once more in book three. This one is a true testament of where the faith of one family and the community of Perkinsville will be tested and the battle between good and evil will be waged.

This series has been such a great one to be a part of for the entire journey and this one will hold the reader to the very end to see how it will all play out. From the complicated, love-less marriage between Stuart Albright and his wife Jael, to the financial struggles of Vandermark Logging when people are leaving town in hopes of a better life someone else. In addition, Deborah and Christopher have their own struggles in dealing with their upcoming marriage and the addition of five children to their soon-to-be family.

I received this book compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review, and can say once more I fell in love with all the characters. Deborah is my favorite because she struggles with her personal faith more than once in deciding what God's will is for her life, becoming a wife, a doctor or a mom with Christopher. She also is challenged in dealing with her families financial struggles as well as supporting the black community in Perkinsville, while racial tension runs rampant with The Hand of God controlling the law in the town. This one rates a perfect 5 out of 5 stars!!!

Here's even more great information about the book, the author and where you can pick up a copy of Hope Rekindled.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Hope Rekindled Bethany House (June 1, 2011) by Tracie Peterson



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 85 novels.

She received her first book contract in November, 1992 and saw A Place To Belong published in February 1993 with Barbour Publishings' Heartsong Presents. She wrote exclusively with Heartsong for the next two years, receiving their readership's vote for Favorite Author of the Year for three years in a row.



In December, 1995 she signed a contract with Bethany House Publishers to co-write a series with author Judith Pella. Tracie now writes exclusively for Bethany House Publishers.



She teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research.



Tracie was awarded the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for 2007 Inspirational Fiction and her books have won numerous awards for favorite books in a variety of contests.



Making her home in Montana, this Kansas native enjoys spending time with family--especially her three grandchildren--Rainy, Fox and Max. She's active in her church as the Director of Women's Ministries, coordinates a yearly writer's retreat for published authors, and travels, as time permits, to research her books





ABOUT THE BOOK

Will Love Escape Her Grasp?



Life seems to be falling into place for Deborah Vandermark. On the cusp of finally marrying Christopher, the man who claimed her heart, she is devastated when he receives an urgent telegram. Bound to his family obligations, Christopher travels to Kansas City, uncertain of what he will find there.



When her fiancé returns to Texas, Deborah is faced with a very different future than she expected. She finds herself plagued with questions and uncertainty...about marriage, motherhood, and her passion to train as a physician. And when an old adversary reveals a contract that may spell ruin for Vandermark Logging, Deborah's life seems to be spiraling out of control. Can Christopher and Deborah find a way to claim the future they long to share when so much stands in the way?



If you'd like to read the first chapter of Hope Rekindled, go HERE.

P. F. Chang's Home Menu - Giveaway and Review

It’s Wednesday night – do you know where your excitement is?

We know the routine as well as you: you get out of work, you think about dinner, and you debate over having chicken or…chicken. How do you add sizzle to your everyday dinners? Do you add a candle for ambience or play sultry music in the background? P.F. Chang’s Home Menu wants to help you ignite the night.

Inspired by the popular dishes of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, P.F. Chang’s Home Menu frozen entrées brings all the sizzle and snap of the restaurant to the dinner table. Home Menu comes in eight varieties – from Orange Chicken to Shanghai Style Beef to General Chang’s Chicken – and uses a cool technology to freeze high-quality meats and vegetables at their peak of freshness so each bite is perfect.

I had the delightful honor last year to bring you, my readers, some fabulous ideas for making dinner delicious and keeping it simple. This year is no exception. Thanks to the wonderful folks at GolinHarris, I received some coupons to try P.F. Chang's Home Menu for my honest review. Now knowing that our closest P.F. Chang is about an hour from here, we couldn't wait to sample some of our favorites. We selected Orange Chicken and Shrimp In A Garlic Sauce. Each makes enough to feed two. So simple to heat over a skillet, and topped over some steamed Jasmine Rice, we truly had a simple and easy to prepare dinner. These meals rate a stellar 5 out of 5 stars. The veggies are crisp, the flavor was outstanding and my family can't wait to have them again.

You can find these meals in your grocery stores, freezer section and I can't wait for you to try them. I know you will enjoy them as much as our family did. Thanks to the generosity of P.F. Changs and GolinHarris, they are offering a giveaway to one lucky reader of this blog. Here are your guidelines:

1. You must be a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart.

2. You must be a resident of the US.

3. I must have a way to contact you if you are the lucky winner, so please be sure to include your email address along with your comment. You can use the words (at) and (dot) instead of the symbols.

4. Let me know which entree you're interested in trying in the comment box. The giveaway will end on June 9th and I will contact the winner via email.

For even more information, check out their website located here.

You can find some great serving tips for using the P.F. Chang's Home Menu, by clicking on their Facebook page here.

Darkness Follows

Sam Travis isn't quite sure how to put his life back together. After suffering from a fall, twenty stories from a roof he was working on and landing on his head, he has difficulty processing thoughts and organizing things after waking up from a coma after several weeks.

If it wasn't for his wife Molly, who has nursed him back to health, he isn't sure where he'd be at right now. His daughter Eva's love for him is unconditional just as it would be for any father.

However when Sam begins hearing his brother Tommy's voice in the middle of the night, he knows something is wrong inside. See Tommy has been dead for twenty one years. When Sam begins to black out during these auditory hallucinations, he awakens to find he has written something. A portion of a journal from a man by the name of Samuel Whiting, who served in the battle of Gettysburg. Yet it's in Sam's own handwriting. What he writes is eerie in detail but also in the claims of some kind of darkness that he following him, asking him to do his bidding.

Is this merely a coincidence, or has this darkness found it's way to Sam Travis as well and is using the writing to speak to him? Sam's daughter, Eva is worried. She insists that she is being told by a man, Jacob, who looks like he's been rolled in glue and covered in glitter, that her daddy is about to do something really bad. She needs to pray for him, to let him know that Jesus loves him and so does she. Her parents chalk this up to an imaginary friend.

In the latest novel, Darkness Follows by Mike Dellosso, the reader is catapulted from the first page into a walking nightmare along with Sam Travis. While his daughter and wife attempt to come to grips with the sanity that seems to be slipping away from Sam, he struggles to make sense with what is real and what he appears to be hallucinating. This is action packed with suspense and horror on page after page when you travel along the dark road with Sam into the nightmare he truly did not see coming, but his daughter did. This one rates a 5 out of 5 stars.

I did not see where this one was headed and I love that. Too many times when reading a suspense thriller, you can anticipate where it is going, and Mike Dellosso keeps you on the edge, the very edge. Not sure what will happen next, you will be holding your breath til the very end. I received this book compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and can say Mike Dellosso is part of my permanent library and one of my favorite authors. I can't wait to read his previous books as well as Frantic coming out soon. A word of caution, you may just want to read this one with the light on.

Here's even more great information about the book, the author and where to purchase a copy of this suspense thriller.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Darkness Follows Realms (May 3, 2011)

by Mike Dellosso
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Mike now lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Jen, and their three daughters. He writes a monthly column for Writer . . .Interrupted, was a newspaper correspondent/columnist for over three years, has published several articles for The Candle of Prayer inspirational booklets, and has edited and contributed to numerous Christian-themed Web sites and e-newsletters. Mike is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, the Relief Writer's Network, the International Christian Writers, and International Thriller Writers. His short stories have appeared with Amazon Shorts and in Coach's Midnight Diner genre anthology. He received his BA degree in sports exercise and medicine from Messiah College and his MBS degree in theology from Master's Graduate School of Divinity.

Mike Dellosso writes novels of suspense for both the mind and the soul. He writes to both entertain and challenge. In addition to his novels, Mike is also an adjunct professor at Lancaster Bible College and a faculty member at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sam Travis lives in a Civil War era farmhouse in Gettysburg, PA, where he awakens one morning to find an old journal with an entry by a Union soldier, Lt. Whiting…written in Sam’s own handwriting. When this happens several more times, both at night and during waking “trances,” Sam begins to question his own sanity while becoming obsessed with Lt. Whiting and his bone-chilling journal entries. As the entries begin to mimic Sam’s own life, he is drawn into an evil plot that could cost many lives, including his own.

Can the unconditional love of Sam's daughter, Eva, break through his hardened heart before a killer on the loose catches up with them and Sam’s past spurs him to do the unthinkable?

If you would like to read the Prologue and first chapter of Darkness Follows, go HERE

That's When I Talk To God

When do you talk to God?

Like a parent enjoys listening to their children, so does God. He enjoys hearing about what goes on in our days, our fears, our challenges and even our praises and successes.

In the latest children's book, That's When I Talk To God by Dan and Ali Morrow, they take a different approach to other children's books by showing prayer in context, through a child living her life and learning through it all the ways and times that she can talk to God.

Children will learn through the beautiful illustrations and heartfelt circumstances she goes through in her day, just how many different ways she can talk to God. They will learn to go to God with their fears, their joys, their questions and even their desires. This is the perfect book that examples the simplicity of what prayers are and how to discover the intimate conversations we can have with God every day and just how much He listens to us.

I received this book compliments of B & B Media Group for my honest review and can't imagine a more perfect book as an introduction to prayer and reading the Bible for children ages 4-8 years old. This one rates a perfect 5 out of 5 stars and I can't wait to begin reading it to my youngest nephew as a way to introduce him to our Heavenly Father!

Here even more great information about the author, the book and where to get your own copy today.

That's When I Talk To God by Dan and Ali Morrow

40 A Novel

How do you begin to live your life when you know when it will all end? Do you question whether what you've heard is real or wonder if this is some strange dream you are about to wake up from?

Tyler Harrison is about to have a life changing encounter. An encounter with an man named Matthew that will tell him, just nine months shy of turning 40 that he will die on his birthday. Not one second more, not one second less.

Tyler goes through what I believe we all would, confusion, doubt, denial, anger, and finally resolution. He begins to take each day and figure out a way to look back at the things he has done in his life to see where this may all wind up. He looks back at the way he saw his father raising him, all the anger he held inside, and how for so many years, he kept all his feelings bottled up just waiting for the opportunity to lay it on the line and be honest with his dad. How disappointed, how rejected and how he would never measure up in his father's eyes.

When faced with his father being debilitated and unable to speak, he begins to wonder if his father hasn't received some form of righteous judgement after all. Yet what Tyler will begin to uncover is the lies that are woven in our life to prevent us from seeing the truth that lies within our reach. Lies that the enemy would love to hide from us and keep us in the darkness. In the end, Tyler will finally see it won't be about the things we wanted or needed to make us happy in this life but the opportunities within relationships that would define who we would become in the end.

In the latest novel 40 by Travis Thrasher, we live through the eyes of record and music producer, Tyler Harrison and he fights the inner turmoil going on in coping with the reality of receiving the gift of knowledge over his own immortality and how he chooses to spend the precious moments he has left. I think Travis' portrayal of the conflict and emotions is perfect especially when considering what we ourselves would do if faced with the same news that we had only a few months left to live.

I received this book compliments of Faith Words and Hachette Book Groups for my honest review and once again was not disappointed with Travis Thrashers ability to write from the heart and soul of his characters. What a wicked web he has woven in this timeless tale. Another 5 out of 5 stars!

For even more information about the book, the author or where you can purchase a copy of this book, please click on the link below:

40 by Travis Thrasher

You can also follow Travis Thrasher on Facebook by clicking here.