Category: Book Review

The Journey Home by Michael Baron

Photobucket

The Journey Home by Michael Baron
Published by The Aronica-Miller Publishing Project, LLC
ISBN-13: 978-0-9819568-6-2
At the request of The Story Plant, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Subject: (from back of book): Joseph, a man in his late thirties, awakens disoriented and uneasy in a place he doesn’t recognize. He sets out on a journey to find his home with no sense of where he’s going and only the precious, indelible vision of the woman he loves to guide him.
  Antoinette is an elderly woman in an assisted living facility who has retreated inside her head. There, her body and mind haven’t betrayed her. There, she’s a young newlywed with a husband who dotes on her and an entire life of dreams to live. There, she is truly home.
  Warren, Antoinette’s son, is a man in his early forties going through the toughest year of his life. With far too much time on his hands, he decides to try to recreate his memories of home by attempting to cook his mother’s greatest dishes and eat them with her.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Michael Baron delivers again !! Another heart tugging, thought provoking, tender and emotional story written only the way Michael Baron can. Filled with mouth watering descriptions of meals that evoke memories of the past. He takes the reader on a journey, along with the characters, to find their way home. But where is truly the place called home and how do we get there? This story touched an emotional chord in my heart, on a personal level, due to the cross road I am also on. While reading how Warren tried to recreate his memories with the smell of meals being cooked, also brought to mind, meals and memories of my own past. Mr. Baron hit this one out of the park !! Like any good meal, The Journey Home, needs to be devoured in one seating.  Bravo !!

Photobucket
Photobucket
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family or friends.

The Journey Home by Michael Baron

Photobucket

The Journey Home by Michael Baron
Published by The Aronica-Miller Publishing Project, LLC
ISBN-13: 978-0-9819568-6-2
At the request of The Story Plant, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Subject: (from back of book): Joseph, a man in his late thirties, awakens disoriented and uneasy in a place he doesn’t recognize. He sets out on a journey to find his home with no sense of where he’s going and only the precious, indelible vision of the woman he loves to guide him.
  Antoinette is an elderly woman in an assisted living facility who has retreated inside her head. There, her body and mind haven’t betrayed her. There, she’s a young newlywed with a husband who dotes on her and an entire life of dreams to live. There, she is truly home.
  Warren, Antoinette’s son, is a man in his early forties going through the toughest year of his life. With far too much time on his hands, he decides to try to recreate his memories of home by attempting to cook his mother’s greatest dishes and eat them with her.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Michael Baron delivers again !! Another heart tugging, thought provoking, tender and emotional story written only the way Michael Baron can. Filled with mouth watering descriptions of meals that evoke memories of the past. He takes the reader on a journey, along with the characters, to find their way home. But where is truly the place called home and how do we get there? This story touched an emotional chord in my heart, on a personal level, due to the cross road I am also on. While reading how Warren tried to recreate his memories with the smell of meals being cooked, also brought to mind, meals and memories of my own past. Mr. Baron hit this one out of the park !! Like any good meal, The Journey Home, needs to be devoured in one seating.  Bravo !!

Photobucket
Photobucket
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family or friends.

The University by Jeffrey Leever

Photobucket

The University by Jeffrey Leever
Published by Capital Crime Press
ISBN 13: 978-0-9799960-6-1
At the request of Omnimystery, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis: (taken from back of book): Ah…college life. A place for learning. Partying and dating. And murder. When investigative journalist Kevin Gibson lets his cousin, a former cop, talk him into looking into a student’s disappearance at Tremont University, he gets more than he bargained for. A former student-injured in a brutal attack two years ago and in a coma-may hold a critical piece of information that can solve the mystery. Meanwhile, an attractive coed continues to hide a very dark secret.
  Tremont junior Brett Duncan is drawn into a cunning world few know exist-a conspiracy involving faculty, students and some well connected people in high places. Beneath the campus’ Hallmark-card exterior lie many secrets, and a pulse-racing mystery with plenty of chills along the way.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: I will start with the positives of this book. I found it to be a quick read with page turning suspense the last 1/3 of this book. I felt that the author’s writing style and the way he created the story line of suspense was quite good. However, there were quite a few things that I didn’t enjoy, and this is my opinion and only my opinion, another reader might totally disagree with me. I felt that some of the sub plots appeared to be written in haste, which made the story line unbelievable and took away from the suspense. I also felt, and again this is my opinion only, that the book as a whole was unsophisticated. The overall basis of a suspenseful plot was good, however, the subplots appeared to be written with not much plausible thought. Unfortunately, this is not a book I would recommend.

Photobucket
Photobucket
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family or friends.

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin

Photobucket

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin
Published by Downtown Press (Division of Simon & Schuster)
ISBN 978-1-4391-2333-1
At the request of Gallery & Pocket Books, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from back of book): Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at seventeen, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now seventeen himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister’s art career, and looking after their volatile mother-all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has given her.
  Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra’s husband, who has some shocking news, Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator’s other passengers-Janes’s brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who’s ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realizes Tom isn’t the only one among them who’s looking for something…or traveling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Most books I read, I can’t wait to finish it to find out the ending.  I was totally ambivalent with this one. I hated to see it end, but then I also wanted to see how it did end.  I don’t know about you, but, I become part of the story in which I am reading.  That is why I didn’t want to turn the last page because I became friends with the characters of this book.  In Alexandra, Gone, the author writes a story of the lives of many loveable, but at times, troubled characters.  I found myself laughing out loud on one page, eyes filling with tears on another, and frustrated with them on yet another.  Ms. McPartlin tells a tender, funny, poignant and moving story of friendship, loss, disappointment, pain, denial and love on so many levels.  This book is the type of book that you get so engrossed while reading that you are unaware of what is going on around you, at least that is what happened to me.  I highly recommend reading Alexandra, Gone and becoming friends with Jane, Elle, Leslie and all the other characters.

Photobucket
Photobucket

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family or friends

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin

Photobucket

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin
Published by Downtown Press (Division of Simon & Schuster)
ISBN 978-1-4391-2333-1
At the request of Gallery & Pocket Books, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from back of book): Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at seventeen, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now seventeen himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister’s art career, and looking after their volatile mother-all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has given her.
  Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra’s husband, who has some shocking news, Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator’s other passengers-Janes’s brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who’s ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realizes Tom isn’t the only one among them who’s looking for something…or traveling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Most books I read, I can’t wait to finish it to find out the ending.  I was totally ambivalent with this one. I hated to see it end, but then I also wanted to see how it did end.  I don’t know about you, but, I become part of the story in which I am reading.  That is why I didn’t want to turn the last page because I became friends with the characters of this book.  In Alexandra, Gone, the author writes a story of the lives of many loveable, but at times, troubled characters.  I found myself laughing out loud on one page, eyes filling with tears on another, and frustrated with them on yet another.  Ms. McPartlin tells a tender, funny, poignant and moving story of friendship, loss, disappointment, pain, denial and love on so many levels.  This book is the type of book that you get so engrossed while reading that you are unaware of what is going on around you, at least that is what happened to me.  I highly recommend reading Alexandra, Gone and becoming friends with Jane, Elle, Leslie and all the other characters.

Photobucket
Photobucket

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family or friends

Higher Education by Kenneth Jedding

It’s that time again, students graduating high school and college and in this economy, this is a perfect gift.

Photobucket

Partially taken from the book’s jacket:  Today’s college grads face a new set of challenges brought on by a sluggish job market, changing technology, and staggering amounts of debt.  The rules have changed since their parents were in school, leaving young adults at a loss for advice that addresses their immediate concerns as well as the big-picture questions with which each generation must contend.
  Life coach Ken Jedding has spent the past decade talking one-on-one with college students and graduates across the country in his workshops and lectures.  In Higher Education, he provides a fresh, modern guidebook to post collegiate life that addresses the issues and concerns he hears voiced most often like How can I land my dream job?  Jedding’s valuable insight, wisdom and humor provide a much-needed roadmapfor the journey that is only just beginning.
My Thoughts:  As a mother of two recent college graduates, I would have liked both of my sons to have read this book.  I know first hand, not only with my sons but also their friends, how many interviews and how many disappointments there were.  How many times I heard that they sat with many other applicants hoping for the same position.  How many times they waited for “the call”.  Fortunately with my boys, “the call” did come and are currently working in their field.
Higher Education  On Life, Landing A Job and Everything Else They Didn’t Teach You In College by Kenneth Jedding is a perfect gift for today’s students.  Available here:   www.higheredgradbook.com

Higher Education by Kenneth Jedding

It’s that time again, students graduating high school and college and in this economy, this is a perfect gift.

Photobucket

Partially taken from the book’s jacket:  Today’s college grads face a new set of challenges brought on by a sluggish job market, changing technology, and staggering amounts of debt.  The rules have changed since their parents were in school, leaving young adults at a loss for advice that addresses their immediate concerns as well as the big-picture questions with which each generation must contend.
  Life coach Ken Jedding has spent the past decade talking one-on-one with college students and graduates across the country in his workshops and lectures.  In Higher Education, he provides a fresh, modern guidebook to post collegiate life that addresses the issues and concerns he hears voiced most often like How can I land my dream job?  Jedding’s valuable insight, wisdom and humor provide a much-needed roadmapfor the journey that is only just beginning.
My Thoughts:  As a mother of two recent college graduates, I would have liked both of my sons to have read this book.  I know first hand, not only with my sons but also their friends, how many interviews and how many disappointments there were.  How many times I heard that they sat with many other applicants hoping for the same position.  How many times they waited for “the call”.  Fortunately with my boys, “the call” did come and are currently working in their field.
Higher Education  On Life, Landing A Job and Everything Else They Didn’t Teach You In College by Kenneth Jedding is a perfect gift for today’s students.  Available here:   www.higheredgradbook.com

The Language of Secrets by Dianne Dixon

The Language of Secrets by Dianne Dixon (ARC)

Published by Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-530-63-7
At the request of Doubleday, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me. for my honest opinion
  Synopsis: (from back of book) Justin Fisher has a successful career as the manager of a luxury hotel, a lovely wife, and a charming young son. While all signs point to a bright future, Justin can no longer ignore the hole in his life left by his estranged family. When he finally gathers the courage to reconnect with his troubled past, Justin is devastated to learn that his parents have passed away. And a visit to the cemetery brings the greatest shock of all-next to the graves of his father and mother sits a smaller tombstone for a three-year-old boy: a boy named Thomas Justin Fisher.
  What follows in an extraordinary journey as Justin struggles with issues of his own identity and pieces together the complex and heartbreaking truth about this family.

  My Thoughts and Opinion: Dianne Dixon, the author of this book, writes a brilliant and masterful story of one family’s heartbreaks, betrayals, lies, control, and secrets that can hurt so many people. The book is divided between the past and present lives of Justin, his parents and two sisters. The author interweaves the characters, that were dramatically life like, that it could be either a family the reader knows or maybe even their own. There is suspense as Justin tries to reclaim a life and family, that he thought he knew, because of a song his mother taught him as a three year old toddler, only to find out there are pieces missing in the puzzle of his life. With an ending that was a total surprise. In the plot of this story line, the author conveys about life’s lessons and the reality of that saying, that life is too short. A beautiful and emotional book to the very last page. I highly recommend that everyone reads this book, whatever age, because it will have the reader reflecting about their own life.
My Rating:  5      
Photobucket
  DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family or friends.