Jessica

This has been a great help. Most of what is included in this should be obvious, but it is easy to forget how to handle yourself at difficult times when trying to communicate with someone whose mind does not process things the same way as most others.

This is written by a man who has an autism diagnosis, so this is the best advice possible. When you have someone in your life who is on the spectrum I promise there will be times when communication is not working out perfectly. It took me years to figure that sarcasm is generally not a good way to communicate. I wish that I read this when I first started in the field I work in. So much confusion, damage, and anxiety could have been avoided. Things that I had said have caused major repercussions. This should be required reading for anyone who finds themselves in close contact with someone with autism, heck it should be required reading for everyone.

If you are looking for an in depth exploration of communicating with those on the spectrum, this isn't it. This is for someone who wants good advice that is easy to understand and apply.

Review copy provided through edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
edelweiss Autism

This is pretty neat. It is more then just a coloring book. Every other page is an activity of some sorts. The are dot to dot, color by number, traditional coloring, design your own, and more. On the iposite page is a prompt about writing thoughtful list, instructions on how to complete the opposite. There are four sections for the seasons. It is a bit smaller than a traditional coloring book. I like that it has an elastic band for holding it together, these help to stop books such as this from flapping open and getting crinkles.

I do feel it important to point out that some of these designs are very detailed and I belive some people with optical issues would find the content hard to complete.

This would make a great gift.

I didn't expect this book to be a pretty as it is. It took a while to convince myself to actually color it. I wanted to put it in my bookcase and never touch it because I love the way this thing looks. There is an elastic band that goes around it to keep it closed making it great to throw into a bag and take it places with you. It has an attatched ribbon bookmark. This makes it stand out so much from  other coloring books that I have seen.

Let me start with the reason I requested this book. I have two teen/tween girls. They are constantly scouring the internet for new ways to style their hair. Normally, they end up on Youtube, which is fine, but I have seen so much frustrating come from trying to pause, rewind, or slow down the videos they watch. Plus, I hate when they plug their phones/tablets in my bathroom. Toilets and electronics do not mix well.

I really didn't expect this to be as nice and easy to understand as it is. I love this book. I am horrible with hair, I can even accomplish some, maybe most of the styles. This is perfect for athletes who like to braid their hair before games or practice. It was a hit at a slumber party this weekend.

I recommend this to mothers of girls who like their hair done up and you're out of ideas.

 I recieved a copy of this through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

I love all things paranormal. When I saw this was a book centered around dolphin shifters I was all for this. This is a paranormal romance featuring a dolphin shifter and a human male. This is book is definitely intended for adults. This is really unique. I like the originality, the characters, and the plot. I do feel the execution of it all fell a bit flat.

This is a story of forbidden romance. Sy is a female dolphin shifter making her first shift into human form and joining SBW (Save Blue Water organization) in hopes of locating her BFF who is an SBW agent who has gone missing . SBW is a group of dolphin shifters charged with keeping their breed secret and safe, at all costs. As soon as Sy steps foot on land her journey is chaos. A human male, Noah, comes to her rescue. Noah is an ex military man who has a lot of emotional scarring. Sparks fly between the two of them, but their relationship is not an acceptable union due to dolphins being forbidden to reveal themselves to human, or to have romantic involvement with them.

I really feel that the storyline is interesting, but the way it was executed could have been better. The history of the dolphin shifters should have been explained more in depth. Their were parts of the story that made this feel too fluff. I wish the paranormal elements of this had been stronger. It felt like a romantic suspense with just a bit of paranormal. Parts of this dragged on a bit too long making it difficult to bounce back into the action when those times came. The action scenes were among the best parts of this book.

All in all I think this is a decent beginning to a series. I would read the next book in hopes that the author will add more depth. I liked the authors humor and think that it may be the only reason I would continue.

I received a review copy of this book through Reading Alley.

When I requested this, I didn't expect a short chapter book for children. I thought I was getting a picture book, which I think would be a much better choice for these stories. There are only three illustrations.  They are very nice. With more,I think it would greatly add to the book.

The stories, there are three of them, are funny. I liked the first best. It is about King Garnet and his legs that won't quit growing. 

This could be a very good book with changes. I would rate this much higher if it were three books it more illustrations. The way it sits is just so-so for me.

I recieved a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Doyle and his monstrous group of zombies grow in quantity in this one. They are the only force strong enough to stop a threat large enough to destroy the world. In order to this they must team up with people from their past who have caused them great hardship. Addy is hiding a BIG secret, and yes i still want to shake the crap out of her sometimes. Chuck is in love Kai but she fears her heart will be shattered if she gives in. He can't get her out of his head and has turned into stalker zombie. Jenny, I finally know what she is, and WOW! I really want to blab on what she is. Please can I tell? Nope, I won't, but I will say she is a monster. Fans of paranormal fiction are really going to want to read her books about Jenny when they come out because I don't think I have see too many, if any, books featuring her specific species of monster. And dang is she cool, and unique!

I have said it many times that I hate books written in first person. This one didn't bother me because it bounces around as to whose point of view the story is being told from. Sounds confusing, but it's not. At the beginning of the chapter it is made clear who is telling you the story. Well clear for most, some how I missed this at first even though it is labeled in easy to notice typing. Even without the labels it would be easy to figure out because of how unique each character is. They all have their own little quirks, mannerisms, and way of speaking. I feel like I have met and familiarized my self with these characters through real life experiences. I really grew to care for them to the point that I felt for them as they struggled and was excited when they succeeded.

On to one of my favorite things about paranormal romance, the love. These zombies love and cherish their women. They try to protect them with everything they have. Sometime in doing so they become overbearing and turn all alpha on their mates. Yes, there is a mate bond, but it isn't corny like I have seen in other books. There is more than one romance focused on also, Doyle and Addy, and Chuck and Kai. But there is also a “kinda love triangle.” It isn't one where you are guessing the outcome because one person loves two people. Those get annoying quit because come on, it's just selfish and mean. It's the kind where someone loves (a love that is unbreakable) someone they will never have because that other person feels the same love for another. I dropped tears for the unloved girl, it was sad and my heart still breaks for her. In this book, Chuck turns downright stalkerish, and it is kind of nice to see him brought down to Earth. I will warn, or jump up and down with a smile on my face while I gush about the sex getting being more d ecriptive and steamy in this one than the previous two books.

On top of the wonderful, not corny romance, we have some kick butt action scenes. These zombies, and Jenny have some pretty amazing abitities. They are pretty much indestructible and when they clash, it is explosive and really gets your ticker pounding. 

This is part of a trilogy. While there are some cliffhangers at the end of each book they aren't tremendously huge. It isn't like they stopped the story midway through a book.

I also wanted to say how well this book was written as far as puncuation and spelling errors. I found a couple, but no more than I have found in books put out by the big name publishers. 

I really liked this. I am very sad that I have finished it and going to try to bribe the author by posting my grandmother's banana pudding recipe. In the author description it is mentioned that she is always in search of the Holy Grail of banana pudding recipes.

Recommendation:

I really recommend this to fans of the genre. It is unlike other books and it is hard to compare to anything else. It is a bit steamer than the young adult paranormal romance you normally see, but it isn't flat out porn like some of the adult books. It is a perfect medium. Plus, the price for the Kindle versions of the books in this series are very affordable. As of the time of this posting, the three book (about 900 pages total) set is $4.97. I will point out that I love the fact that I have dead tree physical copies because they have beautiful covers. 

 

Expected publication: October 2016

This shows you how to build different apparatuses to send different items shooting in the air! It is AMAZING. I have always had a liking for this type of thing. I got in trouble in high school for building a pipe bomb. NO LECTURES, I know it's dangerous! This fuels the pyro/adreneline junkie side of my personality with easy to follow instructions, nice graphics to help to instruct, and so many option as to send things flying through the air. This is a must have for all you who want to know the fundementals to this. Do it the safest way possible and follow the directions.

I forsee so many fun spent summer afternoons in my future! Summer fun with the family (the marshmallow guns!).

Thank you so much Edelweiss for providing a review copy of this!

This was interesting. There is so much to read about. I especially liked the robot butler. I liked the author's writing. He could make a shampoo label sound amazing. I hope to see more from him soon.

I normally write a longer review and will come back to this later and add to what I wrote, but right now I have a cold.

Update:

So this is set in a world that is very complex. You have spaceships, robots, thinking computers, and more. This author does an amazing job with describing it, some of the most vivid writing I have ever read. The is heavy n the sci-fi. I would have given this 5 stars if there would have been more stpry, it was still an excellent book though.

This book will appeal to readers of the genre.

Normally when I win a book on Goodreads I read and review it rather quickly. This didn't take me a while to read, I just had to wait for my mailbox robbing best friend to finish it first. She was getting my mail for me at the time this was delivered, saw that it was a book (she reads even more than I do), opened it, and had to read it. She loved it. For me it was good, but not the same love she had, but I think part of this is due to her love of all things rock and roll. At 34 she is still a groupie for husband's band, ran naked at the last Ozzfest.

This is the second book in what will be a trilogy. I do feel that I may have liked this more had I read the first as it is a continuation of the first. This follows “Writerman,” a young man obsessed with all things rock and roll. This is a coming of age story not for teens due to the content; drug and alcohol use.

This story is almost chaotic at times the way it bounces around, but I think this is intentional to help with the overall feel of the book. The writing itself is solid, and no editing errors stood out to me.

Recommended to anyone who is curious, or wants a flashback of the 70's and it's rock and roll culture.

I am a little behind on this series and jumped a few books for this one. To be honest, I completely forgot about this series until I read this. Now I can't figure out why I didn't stay up to date on it. I really like this.

In this installment we get a man released from jail after being able to prove his innocence after quite a bit of time in prison. We are talking years and years in jail. He has always healed really fast from injury, and seems not to age like other humans. Well, he is not human, but he doesn't know. He is approached by a group of men who claim to be different just like he is. They also claim that they are aliens (I know, it sounds silly, but I promise it is good). He writes them off as whack jobs, at first. He meets a cute female doctor at a local clinic after injuring his hand at his new job at a local watering hole. She fixes him up and sends him on his way, but he can't seem to keep himself away from her.

This is VERY well written, and held my interest really well. I love the chemistry the two main characters have. I genuinely cared for both of them and really enjoyed their happily ever after story. The pacing is nice and to the point with just enough details to make it enjoyable.

Recommendation:

For fans of this series and other paranormal romance books, not just this book, but the whole series. I will definitely be reading the few books I missed.

I recieved a electronic copy for review purposes through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is great for someone who had memories involving racetracks of the past in search of a bit of nostalgia. I especially liked the way this is set up. There is so much history and information in this. It is well written and the photographs used add so much. Great job. Highly recommend.

This is your typical shifter book. You have instamates, graphic sex, cool shifting, etc. In this we have two shifters who meet each other at not the perfect time. Matthias has a vendetta against Trinity's pack alpha. He kidnaps her in order to get a shot at his target. Matthias has already buried his mate and doesn't understand the pull he feels towards Trinity. Sound familiar?

If you have read other Harlequin shifter books this is just what you expect to get.

Let me start by saying that by no means is this a “bad” book, I just thought it would be more “adult” than what it is. Even though these charters are 20ish years old,  I really think I will appeal to a young adult audience. 

I liked Jane, the main character. She seems to be a well rounded, moral person. She does tend to sacrifice her own best interest for that of others.  The male love interest, Colt (I think that is his name), was slightly boring for me, but like the book itself, I think a younger audience will have a different opinion of him. He seemed too one dimensional, and young (there is that word again). 

Where I was most disappointed was with the romance. This is cleanish, so no dirty sex scenes. Their love was way too quick developing, no chemistry, no build up, it was just instantaneous. Hey, your pretty I love you type of love.

What saved this for me? Well, after all I mentioned, I still have a need to know what happens next, and will at some point continue this series to find out. If I were a younger (that word!) person, I would probably would have given this 4 1/2 stars.

I recieved an electronic copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I think this was originally a play, then a book. I liked the story, but noticed a few punctuation mistakes (periods instead of question marks, missing commas). this is the reason for 2 and 1/2 stars as a rating instead of 3 or possibly 3 and 1/2.



As a play I can see that this would be an entertaining production. Everything down to where a character looks is mapped out in the story. There is also a lot of dialog conveying most of the story. I would love to see this on stage.



This is meant for children. It has mystery, magic, suspense, and more. I could see a teacher using this as an outline and script for a school/class play.



I really enjoyed this graphics. They really add to the story, and help to help relay how a scene should look.



With changes to fix the punctuation mistakes. With added said... asked... exclaimed... the story would be better executed and understood. I would raise my rating if these changes were done. This has a lot of potential, and as I said above, it would make a great play t watch and perform.



Excerpt:



“After yesterday, I daren't suggest a thing. Do you know you know you do the best impersonation of a puppy moping about I've ever seen. I think its the watery eyes and wet nose that do the trick.”



“If you were really intelligent you'd be able to think of new insults once in a while. No one invited you into my room.”



I received a copy of this book free of charge. I didn't promise a review in return.

Wow! I really didn't think I would like this, but it was a really good read. This is literary fiction, and it isn't my normal genre. I have encountered very few books in this genre that I like.

There are skme things about this that I think readers should be forewarned about.  The main character is raped by another man. If this is something that you think will bother, stay away.

Could you imagine walking around a foreign country, broke, no identity, and only the clothes on your back? It would be terrifying. Add to that that you are the victim of a homosexual rape. Police are out of the question. What would you do? Rudy, the main character, experiences all this. It makes for a very eye opening read. 

I won this in my obsession to win an Amazon Giveaway! I did finally win, twice in a row!

I this book we have two narrators. They are both unhappy with their social lives, especially with the love/sex part. There has been a scientific breakthrough that has proven that insulin can change a persons sexual orientation, it is called “mouse” because the study was confirmed with lab mice. The first narrator we meet is not named, I think. She is a young, single mother who has not much of a social life. This is to be expected after she had a child while they were off going to college, getting jobs, etc. The father of her child is useless, the first part of her story is about her relationship with him and where it went wrong. The second narrator is a thirty year old virgin named John. John is one of those guys who doesn't have any self confidence and hides behind jokes, excuses, etc. He feels women are just not attracted to him due to his outward appearance; too fat, too plain, too nice. He thinks women secretly just want a bad boy. He decides to experiment with mouse to see if he has more luck with men than with women.

This is well written. I did have to backtrack a few times to figure out who was telling the story, but other than that the story flowed nicely and really kept my attention. I feel the length of this book is perfect for the story, 136 pages.

This book brought a lot of questions to mind. Would people, not only homosexual, change their sexual preference if they could? Is it possible to control this in a medical way? How would the public react to a scientific find such as “mouse?” And so much more.

At first, this was a bit confusing, but it all came together. This is set in the future where the earth is not only dealing with one alien race, there are two. This is very detailed, and I can't even try to imagine how much research went into this. The writing was good, kept a steady flow, and we'll executed. I am impressed. Hope there is more from this author in the future.

For some reason I thought this would be a more medical book, but it was still fun to read at work with my coworkers. One of my younger male coworkers actually stole it from me for guy night, and he said he was going to use it as inspiration for a scrapbook... I didn't really want to know what he meant to create.

This would make a fun bathroom book for some people.

I want to start by saying that I am a big fan of books with mythology of any kind.

This was an interesting read, but I really expected it to be more complex. I wish the Native American mythology would have been focused n a bit more.

I did like the main character. She felt a bit young, but I appreciated how she really grew into a more confident person in the story.

I get that this is young adult, but I feel it was written a bit too simplistic. There needs to be layers and explanations as to why things were done the way they were.

I recieved a copy of this through Netgalley.

This was a solid story. We get a girl, Aithne, who wants to save her sister from a vampire king who has captured her. In order to do this she must capture a male dragon shifter. Dragon shifter is mated to a witch. In order to get close to this man she makes friends with her target's mate's witchy sisters. These witchy sisters are special because not more than one female is ever born to a family, all other children are male. Well, long story short. There is another dragon shifter, Viktor, who houses and protects these witchy sisters. From the moment Aithne and Viktor meet there are sparks, literal sparks as in static electricity, or so they thought that ie what it was...

I like that there are a variety of different species of paranormal character: witches, vamoires, shifters, and some guy who can do something called “shadowing.” This is a standalone book that has an ending, I love that part. The character developement was very good and the world that the author built was intriguing.

There are a lot of characters to keep straight. It became a little confusing. I feel that this is growing to be a big series, so the character introduction may be for a reason. There are things I think could use a little tweaking. The way some of the sentences are worded felt, to me, like they could have been shortened and would have had a better flow. At times, the dialogue also felt a bit lengthy.

All things considered, I will read the next book in the series (if there is one) and decide from there if I will continue after that. I just realized that this is the second book in the series, maybe that would have helped me to keep the characters straight if I had read it. I am assuming it is Chase's (the target shifter) book.

I recieved a free ecopy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I ended up liking this a lot more than I thought I would. I would have given it four stars if I didn't feel that the ending seemed to drag on just a tad bit too long, it wasn't annoyingly long, I just think it could have been better if there weren't a few small filler parts.

This author has a sense of humor. The writing isn't perfect, but woth the humor it almost seems to be on purposeThe character's were likeable, flawed, and easy to relate too, not the be being a dragon part (which would be awesome if I could relate to that). I especially love the little detail where Carolyn, the female lead, can't seem to not misplace her purse, and she is also a book hoarder. Also, it must have been wonderful to finally prove so many people wrong about such a major thing like Carolyn got to.

This also got me thinking a bit. What would it be like to have someone else also living in your thoughts? A soul with no body slips into Carolyn's mind in order to keep out of the dragon version of heaven. At time this soul makes an ass out of Carolyn by taking control of her speech. Most the time she uses this to flirt.

Be aware that this is intended for adults. It contains vulgar language and explicit sex.

This is the first in a series, I will definitely be continuing. Hopefully my library has an ecopy of book two. If not I may have to put it on hold.

I loved this book. Very solid world building. It has a sort of ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane type of main charator.

Caderan the Hunter, a merman, saves Bridget, an oceanograher, for a death by sea. He takes her to his home in The Abyss, a magical realm located under the sea.

There is loads of steamy, and I mean STEAMY sex. The world building was amazing in this book. I finished this whole series in less then two days unable to stop myself from clicking that that 1-click-buy button that Amazon so nicely helped me max my credit card out with...lol.

I was about to start reading this. Then I read a review by another Goodreads reviewer, now I remember this book. This book was the best of what I had read so far. The things the hero in this will do for the woman he loves and his family are amazing. I just wanted to jot this down on here so I would remember that I read this book. Now to try to figure out where I left off.

I wish I could use half stars here. 3.5 stars, but closer to 4, no 3, no 4... when I compare it to my other 4 star star books I think 3, but it is not “average” like the rest of them. I choose drum roll FOUR! I admit I am a tough critic. If I wrote a book and I was reviewing it, I would be scared.

This has a very dark feel. There are some pretty graphic scenes, but it's not nasty gruesome. I like that in a book, a lot.

The gadhar attacked again, slashing the loose skin on the wolf's neck with dagger-sharp claws. Bragg lunged, his knife finding flesh this time scoring a short line of red along the wolf's haunch.

This is pretty unique from other books that sit in the same genre/type, also good. The writing is good, very heavy on content. By that I mean there is a lot packed in and it is very detailed. My favorite scene was in the beginning where the main character is at a market of sorts and he meets up with a bad guy Lupe who he had been tracking.

The writing is good. There are no plot holes that stood out. Not many, if any, typos. I would have liked to see more descriptive summary concerning the setting. They were described, and I got a good idea, but it seemed to lack the beautiful wording that a lot of fantasy books have.

All in all a good read. I hope to see more from this author and really am impressed. I didn't know own what to expect as I have never read anything from her prior to this.

Review ebook provided from Netgalley.