Review & Giveaway: Color of the Sun and Moon by Talia Aikens-Nunez, illustrations by Amy Caringella

Publisher: SundanceKid Press
Source: pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 30, 2016
Challenges: I Love Picture Books
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Colors of the Sun and Moon is an English/Spanish STEM book which featuring an inquisitive young girl and her grandmother. The bright illustrations engage children and illuminate the science of the horizon with vibrant colors.

An inquisitive young girl questions her grandmother about the science behind the colors of the sun and moon. With a forward by Spencer Christian. "Colors of the Sun and Moon" is the second book from the new multicultural, multilingual children's press, SundanceKid Press. The mission of SundanceKid Press is to promote cultural, ethnic/racial and linguistic diversity in children's literature. Each page includes the English text along with the Spanish translation. A free audio recording is available on the SundanceKid Press website.

Bea Reviews Her Bah Humbug Bear by Marie Mason

Publisher: Marie Mason
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Release Date: February 10, 2016 
Buying Links: Amazon* - affiliate link; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through this link.

Blurb from goodreads:

Shy and curvy librarian Mercy Thompson was finally getting to celebrate the Christmas season in a very long time. Raised by an aunt who believed Christmas was just another commercialized holiday, she’d hadn’t been allowed a tree, a brightly wrapped present or even a frosted sugar cookie.

When she meets bear shifter Dirk Stockwell, she immediately feels a pull toward him. She knows however, that she is not his mate. How? Because the big bear ignores her. Fate, however, is willing to lend a hand to the young woman in search of the Christmas spirit…
Dirk is a bear shifter who doesn’t believe in Christmas and a whole lot of other things. He especially doesn’t believe he’s worthy of a mate. Having failed to protect his parents and siblings, he withdrew from the world, readily accepting his fate to be a lone bear. And during the Christmas season—a Bah Humbug bear.

Fate and the magic of Christmas has to work overtime to bring this couple together.

Review & Excerpt: The Lafayette Sword By Eric Giacometti and Jacques Ravenne

Publisher: Le French Book
Series: Antoine Marcas #2
Format Read: Paperback
Source: pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 15,2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Gold. Obsession. Secrets.
Following the murder of a Freemason brother, Antoine Marcas uncovers unsettling truths about gold and its power to fascinate and corrupt. A priceless sword is stolen and deaths ensue setting the Freemason detective on a case of Masons turned bad. A clue points to mysteries and conspiracy about elusive pure gold, launching a frantic, deadly race between two symbolic places-the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. A captivating plot weaves alchemy and the Middle Ages into a modern-day thriller. With "vivid characters, an evocative international setting, and history darker than midnight," this thriller is for readers who love ancient myths, secret societies, chilling narrative and modern speed. - Over 200,000 copies sold in France alone - The series has sold over 2 million copies worldwide - Published in 18 countries

Bea Reviews The Soul of a SEAL by Anne Elizabeth

Series: West Coast Navy SEALS #4
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 6th, 2016
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb adapted from goodreads:

Love may be the toughest battle of all

Captain Bennett Oscar Sheraton
Navy SEAL, the best of the best

Dr. Kimberly Warren
Brilliant engineer, founder of secret space program

When scientists on Dr. Warren’s super-secret space mission start dying, Navy SEAL Captain Sheraton is sent in as an astronaut candidate with a hidden agenda—find the person sabotaging the program.

Kimberly and Bennett’s instant attraction may prove to be a major distraction—or it might be the key to both of their dreams coming true…

Bea Reviews Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

Series: From Manhattan with Love #3
Publisher: HQN Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 29th, 2016
Challenges: Ho Ho Ho Read-A-Thon |
NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

It will take a Christmas miracle for two very different souls to find each other in this perfectly festive fairy tale of New York!

Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan loves everything about Christmas. She might be spending the holidays alone this year, but when she's given an opportunity to house-sit a spectacular penthouse on Fifth Avenue, she leaps at the chance. What better place to celebrate than in snow-kissed Manhattan? What she didn't expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous—and mysterious—owner.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade is having the nightmare before Christmas. With a deadline and the anniversary of his wife's death looming, he's isolated himself in his penthouse with only his grief for company. He wants no interruptions, no decorations and he certainly doesn't appreciate being distracted by his beautiful, bubbly new housekeeper. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva snowbound in his apartment, Lucas starts to open up to the magic she brings…This Christmas, is Lucas finally ready to trust that happily-ever-afters do exist? 

2017 Nora Roberts/JD Robb Release Schedule

Woo Hoo! It's that time again when Ms. Roberts shares her release schedule for the next year. I love this look at what's coming up and planning my reading (and reviewing) around the release dates. As always the info is in graphic form and dates are subject to change.

Bea Reviews Ocean Animals from Head to Tail by Stacey Roderick, illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya

Series: Head to Tail series
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 6th, 2016
Challenges:  I Love Picture Books | NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge

Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

This nonfiction picture book uses a playful guessing game to introduce eight different ocean animals and some unique aspects of their bodies. First, readers are shown a close-up illustration of an unusual part of an animal's body and asked to guess its owner: ?What ocean animal has a head like this?? Then the following spread reveals the animal's name (e.g., ?A hammerhead shark!?), along with an illustration of the whole animal in its habitat. There's also a brief description of the animal's traits with a special emphasis on the featured body part. For example, readers learn that a blue whale's mouth contains baleen, which help it capture krill to eat, and that the tail of a seahorse curls so it can hold on to sea plants for stability. Young children will recognize that every animal has its own distinctive features and body parts that help it survive. Author Stacey Roderick has created a perfect beginning exploration of the physical traits of ocean animals that's both engaging and informative. Paper collage illustrations by Kwanchai Moriya in bright, eye-catching colors bring the animals to vivid and appealing life. The fun, interactive nature of the guessing game makes this book ideal for a read-aloud. It would be a terrific addition to an early life-science class on the characteristics of living things or on types of ocean animals. A bonus spread includes information on eight more ocean animals. 

Review & Excerpts: Children of Amarid and The Outlanders by David B. Coe

Publisher: Lore Seekers Press
Series: The LonTobyn Chronicles Book #1
Format Read: Paperback
Source: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 30, 2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* |Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

For a millenium, the Children of Amarid have served the people of Tobyn-Ser. Drawing upon the Mage-Craft, which flows from the psychic bond they forge with their avian familiars, the Mages of the Order have fulfilled their oaths by healing the injured and ill, repelling invasions by the land’s enemies, and caring for the people in times of crisis. They are governed by laws handed down by Amarid, the first of their kind, who committed the Mage-Craft to the people’s protection. Only once in a thousand years has a mage defied those laws. Theron, a contemporary of Amarid, sought to use his powers to gain wealth and glory. For that he was punished, though not before he brought down a terrible curse on his fellow mages and all who would come after them.

Recently, dark rumors have spread across Tobyn-Ser. Children of Amarid have been seen destroying crops, vandalizing homes, massacring men, women, and children. Have the mages forsaken their oaths? Has Theron returned from beyond death to take his vengeance? Or does Tobyn-Ser face a new threat, one it is ill-prepared and ill-equipped to face? With the land in turmoil and faith in the Mage-Craft badly shaken, it falls to Jaryd, a young mage with extraordinary potential, but little knowledge of the power he wields, to find and destroy Tobyn-Ser’s enemies before they destroy all he holds dear.

CHILDREN OF AMARID is the first volume of the LonTobyn Chronicle, David B. Coe’s Crawford Award-winning debut series. This is the Author’s Edit of the original book.