Blog Tour Giveaway & Group Review of A Child's Introduction to Art by Heather Alexander & Illustrated by Meredith Hamilton

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Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Series: Child's Introduction
Format Read: Hardcover
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 20, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The newest volume in Black Dog's best-selling, award-winning Child's Introduction series explores the fascinating world of art and artists and includes do-it-yourself art projects throughout.

In the tradition of Black Dog's best-selling Child's Introduction books, which include The Story of the Orchestra and A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky, A Child's Introduction to Art introduces kids ages 9 through 12 to the art world's most famous painters, styles, and periods, all brought to life through full-color photographs of 40 masterpieces, as well as charming original illustrations.

The book highlights 40 painters and sculptors, including Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, Diego Velasquez, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Mary Cassatt, and Andy Warhol, providing information on their life, inspirations, influences, technique, and a full-color photo of one of their signature works of art. It also includes an overview of various styles and periods (Renaissance, Impressionism, Cubism, etc.), instruction on how to view and appreciate art, and information on the color wheel and other tools artists employ.

Fun art projects throughout, such as Can You Find It?, Q-tip pointillism, making a stained-glass window with tissue paper, and Spatter Paint like Pollock, allow kids to learn about painting techniques and explore their own artistic abilities. Also includes five masterpiece paintings to color.

Meredith Hamilton's witty illustrations add another dimension to the excellent text and photographs.

Bea & CarolKat Review Back To You by Jessica Scott

Publisher: Forever Romance
Series: Coming Home #3
Format: Kindle Galley
Source: The publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 7, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository* | ARe*


Blurb from goodreads:

He's in for the fight of his life . . .

Army captain Trent Davila loved his wife, Laura, and their two beautiful children. But when he almost lost his life in combat, something inside him died. He couldn't explain the emptiness he felt or bridge the growing distance between him and his family—so he deployed again. And again. And again . . . until his marriage reached its breaking point. Now, with everything on the line, Trent has one last chance to prove to his wife that he can be the man she needs . . . if she'll have him

. . . to win back his only love.

Laura is blindsided when Trent returns home. Time and again, he chose his men over his family, and she's just beginning to put the pieces of her shattered heart back together. But when Trent faces a court martial on false charges, only Laura can save him. What begins as an act of kindness to protect his career inflames a desire she thought long buried—and a love that won't be denied. But can she trust that this time he's back to stay?

Dual Review of Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Release Date: August 2, 2011

Series: #1 in the Fortune Teller Mystery series

More Info:  Amazon     The Book Depository

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):

Leaving the Big Apple for the quaint town of Divinity, New York, Sunny is determined to make it on her own as a psychic. With an ancient Victorian house as her place of business, Sunny uses various psychic methods to aid the town's residents. But when she uses tea leaves to give a reading for a frazzled librarian, what she finds at the bottom of the cup is anything but helpful.
Sunny informs the police of her deadly vision, but her warning is too late. And with hard-nosed, ruggedly handsome Detective Mitch Stone denying her abilities and naming her prime suspect, the situation is dire. Now Sunny has to use her visions to clear her name, before the killer can put an end to the psychic's future...

Our Thoughts:

Jax:

This was a fun book, not too long, and a great way to start a series. Light, with a quick pace, it sets up characters that you want to learn more about. There are lots of little twists, and while I had a good idea of who the villain might be, I still had more than one suspect by the time of the big reveal.

I like Sunny. I like Sunny and Detective Stone together, both as crime solving partners and a potential romantic pairing. And Morty the cat! Creepy in the best of ways, I look forward to seeing more of Sunny's odd little protector.

This is my favorite kind of summer read, one that I can peek up from to see what the kids are up to, and delve back into without losing that feeling of being into the story. It's welcoming, even for a murder mystery.

Bea:

This was a light story but unlike Jax, I didn't find it to be quick. I had trouble staying interested, and kept putting it down. It did keep me guessing, there were twists and turns in the mystery; unlike Jax I didn't catch on to who killer was until almost the end. I also found it refreshing that Sunny didn't have an easy time getting people to talk to her, the answers didn't fall in to her lap; she had to work for them. That is one of the more common weaknesses of cozy mysteries and Townsend avoided it.

Sunny could be naive, was rebellious with her parents in a manner that reminded me of a teenager, and was headstrong at times but her heart was in the right place and she came across as genuine and like someone you might meet around town. The conflict with Mitch, the detective working the case, felt manufactured to me - young, flaky, new agey psychic versus the conservative, stubborn, know-it-all detective. I didn't really feel the attraction between them but the dialogue could be fun and snappy.

Morty was intriguing, I'd like to learn more about him. I can't quite figure him out. I think I liked him the best of all in the book.

Overall, I found it to be light, standard cozy mystery fare, nothing special. If you like the fortune teller angle (it's what initially caught my interest), don't mind some stereotypes, and want an easy way to pass the time, curl up with a cup of tea and give it a try.

We each received a copy of this paperback from the publisher.

Dual Review of Vanished in the Night by Eileen Carr

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Release Date: July 26, 2011

More Info: Amazon     The Book Depository

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

She doesn’t trust cops . . .

Veronica Osborne has had enough problems with the police, thanks to her volatile father. So when tall, strapping Sergeant Zach McKnight shows up at her door, she’s prepared for anything—except the news that her beloved missing brother, Max, has been dead for nearly twenty years . . . ever since he ran away.. . . until she meets one who’d risk everything to protect her.

Appalled when the police suspect her father of Max’s murder, Veronica begins her own investigation. But as her surprising role in her brother’s disappearance surfaces, so do more bodies. The ghosts of Max’s past are working hard to hide the truth, while another, more sinister force will do anything to expose it. How far will a killer go to get revenge? And can Zach stop him before he targets the woman Zach’s coming to love?

Our Thoughts:

Jax: Y'know, for all that mystery novels aren't my genre of choice, I've been enjoying an awful lot of them lately. Usually I find them to be a bit far fetched. (yes, I know that's funny from a fantasy/scifi fan, but it's the truth.) Eileen takes a very disturbing situation and very neatly shows us the gamut of realistic responses in a well paced, intriguing, twisting tale. Zach and Veronica have a great chemistry, and wonderfully thorough back stories that make this more than your typical thrilling mystery.



Bea: Mwahahahaha, my evil plan is working. :D I'll turn Jax into a mystery reader yet.

I liked this book and may hunt down the previous one, "Hold Back the Dark", which featured several detectives, Josh and Elise, who have minor supporting roles in this one. Carr takes her time unraveling the story, and introducing the players. It all starts with the discovery of a set of bones which are identified as belonging to Veronica's long lost, older half brother, Max. From there, the story spirals. We meet characters who die horribly almost as soon as we meet them, or have some yet unknown connection to Max.

There are twists and turns, solid writing, well developed characters, and a romance that plays out realistically and believably. This is very much a procedural mystery so it can move a bit slowly at times but it's interesting, it's well done, and it's definitely worth reading.




We each received a paperback from the publisher for review.

Dual Review of Quiet Anchorage by Ed Lynskey

Publisher: BooksforABuck.com


Release Date: March 28th, 2011


More Info: Amazon


Book Blurb:

Quiet Anchorage, Virginia, looks like paradise. When she's accused of murdering her fiance, however, the small town is anything but heavenly for Megan Connors. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon, it looks like an open-and-shut case, and Sheriff Fox, running for reelection and anxious to get credit for 'solving' a murder case, intends on ramming through charges and getting a conviction. Megan's only champions are her aging aunts. They don't believe she's guilty, but what can two senior citizens do against the powers of the state and the evidence against Megan?

Isabel and Alma Trumbo may be aging, even worried about memory loss, but they've read just about every mystery published in the past half-century. They're sure they've picked up the skills and knowledge they need to prove Megan's innocence. Starting with the town's gossips and loafers, then scaling up when the sexy ex-girlfriend of one of the Sheriff's deputies joins them, they search for alternate suspects, possible motives, and any evidence that might exonerate their niece.

Similar cozy mysteries are Anne George’s Southern Sisters and Rita Mae Brown’s Merry Minor Herristeen titles (also a series set in Virginia).



Our Thoughts:


BEA:


I like cozy mysteries, they can be a lot of fun. You get a mystery but it's as much about the characters as it is the mystery. Often, there's a theme to them - cooking, knitting, etc - but not always. "Quiet Anchorage" doesn't have the theme but it does give us cozy. We have the Trumbo sisters, no longer young, who now live together and take up sleuthing when their niece is arrested for murder. They are both avid mystery readers and waste no time putting to use what they have read. They have a lot of beginners luck, and the story gets very convoluted. There are some twists and turns, some believable, some less so and on occasion you could see that Lynskey is more used to writing more hard boiled detective stories .

I'm not familiar with the Southern Sisters series but I have read most of the Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen books and other than the fact that they are both set in rural Virginia and are both cozy mysteries, there's isn't a similarity. Why, you wonder, did I bold those words? Because, in the description, which comes straight from the email he sent us when he requested a review and is also the Goodreads blurb, he misspells the characters name. Bad form when you are comparing yourself favorably to them, and poor editing. As some of you know, that's a major peeve of mine and it cropped up periodically in the story. I'm not sure it would bug someone who isn't picky about that sort of thing, but if you are, you've been warned. :P

Overall, not bad but I'm not rushing out to get the next one in the series.


JAX: Mysteries are not my genre of choice, but I do occasionally like to pick them up. Not to solve the who-done-it, but just to watch the story unfold: the false leads, multiple suspects, etc. This story in and of itself wasn't bad, but I found somethings distracted me from it. Odd scene changes, awkward turns of phrase, and I spent half the book trying to figure out why the Sheriff's name changed suddenly when both names were finally used together, solving a mystery that had my attention more than the  murder at hand.
But, like Bea, I find some of the littlest details to be enough to jar me out of a story.

Outside those things, I think that the plot was good, and I liked the characters. There is a very clear set up for future books, and I can see the potential for the sisters to get out of their little town and into more trouble. I'd be willing to catch up with them on their next caper, see if they can use their small town wiles in a wider world.

The PDF was received from the author for review.

Guest Review of JD Robb's Treachery in Death

Publisher: Putnam

Release Date: February 22, 2011

Series:  #32 in the In Death Series.

More Info: Amazon



Today we have a guest review from an acquaintance I'll call Nifty. I met Nifty at Patricia Briggs' discussion board. Nifty is an avid reader and when she's not reading or working, she is playing with her dog, Bandit.

Book Blurb:

In the latest from the #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon, Eve Dallas tracks down those who break the law-including the ones sworn to uphold it.

Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a senseless crime-an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks for nothing more than kicks and snacks. This is Peabody's first case as primary detective - good thing she learned from the master.

But Peabody soon stumbles upon a trickier situation. After a hard workout, she's all alone in the locker room when the gym door clatters open; and-while hiding inside a shower stall trying not to make a sound-she overhears two fellow officers, Garnet and Oberman, arguing. It doesn't take long to realize they're both crooked-guilty not just of corruption but of murder. Now Peabody, Eve, and Eve's husband, Roarke, are trying to get the hard evidence they need to bring the dirty cops down-knowing all the while that the two are willing to kill to keep their secret. 

My Thoughts:

Unlike other books in this series, Treachery in Death is light on the mystery - we know who the bad guy is, and what the crime is, from the first chapter – and doesn’t seem to have the heft and evilness of some previous plots.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as sometimes the plots of the In Death books can be over-the-top – not just evil, but eeeevil – and in this case, it’s a straight-forward police procedural that brings the focus back on the team, their skills, and their principles.  Merely knowing who the bad guy is isn’t enough.  Eve still has to gather evidence and build a case and move with care in doing so, considering that the bad cop is a ranking officer of the NYPSD and the daughter of a highly respected former commander. This investigation has to be 100% above-board and air-tight.

Most of the story moves at a lightning pace.  Eve uses the homicide of one of the bad cop’s weasel as her foot in the door, and from there it’s just connecting the pieces.  And if she has to shake a few trees to see what kind of rotten fruit falls down, so much the better.  We all know how much she loves to get in the face of the villains she has targeted.
Eve's personal story doesn't get a whole lot of attention, but there's a humorous scene with Eve, Bella, and Mavis – who is tagged for a bit of con-work -- and a sweet scene between Roarke and Eve. The most significant personal aspect for me was actually professional also: Eve muses on how the type of woman she is sets the tone for the type of cop she is, but also the type of BOSS she is.  Also, every In Death story comes with at least a little focus directed at one of the (many!) secondary characters, and in this book, that particular spotlight is focused on IAB rat Don Webster.

I thought the tightness of the story suffered just a bit at the very end - the last 70 pages or so - and the climax could have used a bit more punch. But overall I found this one to be really enjoyable and kind of rewhetted my appetite for these characters and this series (which had begun to wane in the last couple years). 

Review: The Ghost of Vampire Present by Seleste deLaney

Book Blurb: Jocelyn has finally found her knight in shining armor in Chad, and ghosts are the last thing on her mind. Even when one shows up in her bedroom on Christmas Eve, Jocelyn's a bit more concerned about the other guests on the agenda. She'd prefer to never see another vampire, and the ghost tells her to expect not one, but three.

When the one from her past shows up even though he's supposed to be dead, she decides she's dreaming and suffers through the night. By the time dawn breaks, she's not so sure anymore.

But if it's not a dream that means her nightmare is far from over.


Our Thoughts:

****WARNING: This book contains spoilers if you have not yet read the story prior to it, "Of Course I Try"****

     Bea: The Ghost of Vampire Present takes place a few months after the events of Of Course I Try and occurs at Christmas time. In the spirit of Christmas, deLaney has chosen to write her story as a modern take on the three ghosts of Christmas. I was hesitant about that, uncertain how well it could be integrated into the story and not get saccharine or ridiculous. Happily, deLaney pulls it off, so well I almost missed one lol. The ghosts help move the story along but the conceit doesn't take over the story.

     The story was an engaging mix of romance, mystery, danger, and relationships. I got caught up in the story and was delighted that it was longer than it's predecessor. The novella length allowed deLaney to develop the characters and the emotions, while also building her world and setting up future plot lines. There are questions left unanswered, both for Jocelyn and the reader, but happily there is more to come in the Blood Kissed series.

     Jax: I said it about Of Course I Try too- my only complaint about this story is that it's so short. The Ghost of Vampire Present is a wonderfully crafted story, one with mystery, hot sex and sweet romance. And it's a fun paranormal twist on three well known Christmas ghosts! The supporting characters are hilarious additions to the Blood Kiss stories. I love that Jocelyn has real doubts as to what's going on, weighing and measuring the evidence and coming up short on an answer. While I don't envy her concerns, I would love the dilemma of choosing between Max and Chad!


Publisher: Decadent Publishing

Release Date: December 10th, 2010

More Info: goodreads

This ebook is owned by the reviewers. The author is a personal acquaintance of both reviewers.

Review: DragonArt Evolution by J "Neon Dragon" Peffer

Book Blurb:  A dragon artist’s guide to better drawing

Magnificent and powerful creatures, these dragons be, with bone-crushing jaws and razor-sharp teeth, it’s difficult to tell whether you’re dealing with a hotheaded nature or a wise and benevolent beast. Therein lies the trouble with drawing them from life. Make your dragon portraits more authentic (while avoiding loss of life and limbs) with the help of this guide. A follow-up to the fiercely popular DragonArt, this book features ALL NEW dragons and EVEN MORE detailed dragon anatomy instruction. 

· 60+ step-by-step demonstrations cover a variety of dragons, including medieval, fairy and sea-dwelling varieties

· In-depth advice for drawing every part of the beast—eyes, ears, horns, wings, scale patterns, limbs and more

· Extra tips and tricks provided by your dragon guide, Dolosus

It’s everything you need to draw a variety of dragons—from enormous, ancient beasts with broken scales and fractured horns, to sleek, sinuous creatures with leathery skin and fancy frills. So steel your heart, prepare your trusty inking pen, and venture forth, brave artist … unleash the ferocious, extraordinary, original beasts that dwell within your fiery imaginings!

***NOTE: This review originally appeared at The Book Lovers Inc blog as a dual review. The review was actually two sided of myself, the school teacher and the book reviewer, working together. I have reproduced the review as it originally appeared. My review name at that blog is The Charmed Lover. ***

My/Our Thoughts:  
The book came with a flyer describing it as a tool for increasing creativity and quoted some studies concerning children's creativity. I teach (pre-school) so that jumped out at me. Perusing the book, I had two very distinct reactions: my teacher's voice was saying one thing and my reader's voice was saying something else so I decided to do this review using both voices.

Why did you decide to read DragonArt Evolution?

Bea The Teacher: My interest was immediately caught by the publisher's claim that the book could help counter loss of chidlren's creativity due to the amount of time they spend watching tv. That topic is a hot button at my own school so I was curious to see how, or if, the book met the publishers claims. Additionally, I'm of the school of thought that it's the process, not the product, that matters.

The Charmed Lover: I have always loved dragons, they are one of my favorite mythological creatures but I can't draw worth a darn. Even my stick figures are sad little creatures. The teacher part of me knows that I shouldn't care so much about the result but I get  frustrated nonetheless. I hoped that I might be able to draw something resembling a dragon.

What were your expectations before you started the book?

Bea The Teacher: I worried that it would be a paint, or in this case, draw by the numbers book.

The Charmed Lover: I had the same worry and also worried that the illustrators pictures were so gorgeous that someone trying to draw their own dragon might feel intimidated.

When you started reading the book what was your first impression?

Bea The Teacher: I loved the illustrations! The colors, the details, everything was so gorgeous and the faces have such emotion to them.

The Charmed Lover: I felt the same. I spent a long time just looking at the final products and enjoying their loveliness.

Final Verdict? Does the book meet it's goal?

Bea The Teacher: Yes and no. I think it definitely meets the author's stated goal of helping the reader learn to draw dragons. Does it meet the publisher's goal? Well, that's harder to measure but I'm doubtful. I do think that the book will encourage the readers both to practice and to experiment. Peffer gives not only detailed steps for each dragon and illustration but she explains the reasons behind each step and the book has mini lessons on topics such as shading and perspective. If this is the readers first introduction to thinking about art that way, it might encourage them to keep experimenting and to seek out instruction.

I really like that Peffer continually encourages the reader to experiment and to draw their own dragons; her illustrations are both a goal and a starting point. She never makes the reader feel like their work is lesser if it doesn't look like her finished product.

It's definitely not a draw by the numbers sort of book so it may end up encouraging some creativity after all.

The Charmed Lover: I still can't draw a dragon, or a decent stick figure, but I liked this book. The author is very encouraging and frequently reassures the reader that the desired results take time and practice. She encourages the reader to make their own dragons, not just the ones that she has drawn in the book. She gives detailed instructions, complete with explanations, and offers mini art lessons on such topics as anatomy, the color wheel and even geography ie how a dragon's environment would affect it's build. The book is fun, never dry, humorous and a joy to look at even if you never try to draw.

Publisher: Impact

Release Date:  August 19, 2010