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book review – Luv Saving Money

Category: book review

May Flowers Giveaway Hop

My two youngest kids have been enjoying the National Geographic Kids books. During the month of May Nat Geo Kids book is celebrating DinoMAYnia! This time around, they had the opportunity to check out a Dino themed book package.

My 12 year old was immediately drawn to the Nat Geo Ultimate Dino-pedia. He sat for over an hour reading through the book, excitedly telling me facts about different dinosaurs. Asking me if I ever heard of some of them, truth is, I really hadn’t.

When my 8 year old came home I told her we received some books to check out. she went over to the books and started sorting through them. She was drawn to the So Cool! Dinos book. This small book is packed with easy to read and understand facts about dinosaurs. It’s the perfect size to pack in a travel bag or suitcase for down time too. The colorful, well illustrated pictures in the book are very eye catching too

One of my favorite books in the Dino-packed package is the Weird But True Dinosaurs book. This book has 300 dino related facts. I was flipping through and found a lot of interesting facts right away. Did you know that there is a hotel in Japan that has robotic dinosaurs that work the front desk?

There are dinosaur books for all ages in this package. Something for everyone you might say.

Where Can I Get More DinoMAYnia Info?

Nat Geo Kids has a fun websites filled with DinoMAYnia games, videos, facts, and even a dinosaur personality quiz: natgeokids.com/dinomania

You can find out more about each book and purchase Dino themed Nat Geo books here: https://books.disney.com/dinomaynia

GIVEAWAY

1 US winner will win a Nat Geo Kids Books DinoMAYnia bundle

Nat Geo Kids Books: DinoMAYnia

Enter More Giveaways Participating in the Hop Here:

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Books On My Reading Wish List

As I go through looking for deals on Amazon I see book suggestions. I still have books sitting on my shelf at home or sitting on my Kindle that I haven’t had time to read so I just add them to my wish list.

I’m all over the board with books. I enjoy paranormal romances, thrillers and suspense, cozy mysteries, light-hearted reads, true stories of struggle and triumph, an more. I also love a good fairytale retelling especially if it’s more grown-up or has a unique twist. I’m not good at categorizing books either so I apologize for that. But here is what’s on my wish list:

The Moonlight Child by Karen McQuestion – Reading the synopsis I’m thinking it’s a paranormal mystery but it sounds intriguing to me.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson – another paranormal read that sounds like it takes places many years ago. Discovering family secrets, witches, religion, just sounds like an interesting read to me. I actually requested this one for my birthday since my birthday is in October. I figure it’s a perfect October read.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain – as an introvert myself, admittedly, the title peaks my interest. I don’t see too many book about introverts with a positive spin so I’d like to check it out. It also happens to be a New York Times best seller

Of Spice and Men: A Pancake House Mystery by Sarah Fox – I’ve read several books in the pancake house mystery series. A meddling female main character, romance, beautifully described ocean town, and mouth watering food descriptions. Each book also has recipes for some of the foods described in the book which I LOVE. A nice cozy mystery to curl up with

Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes by Cathy Holton – 3 friends coming together to deal with life circumstances. To me it seems like the southern version of the first wives club or something similar. I saw someone reading the 2nd book in this series and asked her about it. She told me it was very entertaining, funny, heartwarming, etc. So I’d like to give the first book a try first.

The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes – This book sounds absolutely rivoting. A thriller perhaps or maybe paranormal mystery. I’m not sure from the synopsis but either way, it sounds like my kinds of book .

I have a few more on my wishlist but these are towards the top of my list. Tell me what is on your reading wishlist.

This post does contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I will earn a small commission from sales made through my links

National Book Lovers Day: My Recommendations and Wish List

Did you know it’s National Book Lovers Day? I didn’t until today. I’ve done a number of book reviews of the years. I don’t do them as much anymore but my love of books has not changed. It’s one reason I participate in the Silver Dagger Book Tours. I love learning about new book I might want to add to my list or having the chance to review a book I just can’t pass up.

I’m all over the board with the type of books like to read thrillers, para-normal, romance, comedy, drama, if the premise of the book peaks my interest then I’m about it.

I do tend to like books with strong/smart female characters (no whiney damsel in distress for me). I tend to like books set in the deep south for some reason or book set in Pennsylvania or the beach. I do NOT like books where bad things happen to kids and they go into too much detail. I also don’t like anything too gory.

My Book Recommendations

  • The Graveyard Queen Series by Amanda Stevens – If you’ve ever asked me about books I’ve probably raved about this series to you. I had the chance to review The Abandoned several years ago. It’s the prequel to The Graveyard Queen Series. This book can stand alone and you do not NEED to read it to understand the rest of the series. But if you end up liking the series as much as I did, you’ll want to read every page you have access to. The Graveyard Queen Series is a paranormal romance taking place in the deep south. A strong, professional, female character (not your helpless damsel in distress), ghosts, romance, cop drama, this series has everything. For some reason Amazon has The Abandoned listed as book 4 but it’s not, it’s the prequel. Trust me, every time a new book came out I went back and reread the series again. That’s how much I enjoyed it.
  • Paranoid by Lisa Jackson – I had the opportunity to review this book not that long ago. This thriller kept me up reading until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. Then i went to work, came home and snuggled up to finish it again. (There may have been frozen pizza for dinner that night) This again has a strong lead female character.
  • Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn – Straight up I’m gonna tell you, I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I’m not a BIG romance reader but I do like it if it’s done right. I don’t want an over-the-top romance or cowboy romance. I think part of what I don’t like is the whole damsel in distress idea that some of these romances seem to embrace as their theme. For me I like a modern day romance. Either realistic or with a smart woman character that’s not needy and clingy. I think that’s why I enjoyed this book. I also enjoyed that even over a 1/4 of the way through the book you weren’t sure how the situation was going to work out.
  • Pancake House Mysteries by Sarah Fox – Yes another series I fell in love with. This is a cozy mystery series that takes place in a little beach time. Perfect beach read or cuddled up under a blanket with your favorite warm beverage or glass of wine. This is currently a 6 book series and I’ve yet to read all of them but I’ve read 3 of the 6 so far. I actually started with Yeast of Eden which is book 4 because it was offered up for review. After reading that book and loving it I found out it was part of this series. I went back and snapped up book 1 and 2 to devour. Devour is an interesting choice of words too because the dishes served in the pancake house sound amazing. AND they offer recipes for some of the dishes described in each book at the end of the book. So when you’re mouth is watering reading the book you can whipped up a dish or two. You can read the books as stand-alone but I found, reading from book one gives you more background on the relationships and the history of the characters. Book One is The Crepes of Wrath.

What’s on my Bookish Wishlist?

The answer is, a lot. I have an ever growing list on Amazon for my book wishlist Here are my top 5

Now I want to know. Name one book you’d recommend and one book on your wish list.

This post does contain affiliate links. I will get a small commission from purchases made through my links.

Kids Book Bundle Giveaway

Kids Book Bundle Giveaway

Welcome To The Kids Book Bundle Giveaway!

This giveaway is part of our Back to School Gift Guide. Stop by to see all the great giveaways and products!

Do your kids love to read? A love of reading is critical to helping young people succeed in school. Encourage your child to read more by having fun books like these at home.

For my kids, I also found that letting them pick their own books and giving them goals encouraged their love of reading. For instance, you can’t play that video game until you’re able to read. See all the prompts? You have to be able to read to understand what you have to do next.

In that way my youngest son became super motivated to read and is now one of the top readers in his class.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

book
book
book
book
sourcebooks

One Lucky Winner Will Receive 3 Books from the “How to Catch” Series by Adam Wallace and How to Build a Leprechaun Trap by Larissa Juliano!

Prize:

4 Books Published by Sourcebooks:

How to Catch a Dragon

How to Catch a Dinosaur

How to Catch a Leprechaun

How to Build a Leprechaun Trap

Stuck inside? Make these precious days at home a time for new learning experiences by reading these fun and adorable books!

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One entrant will be selected by the entry form to win 4 kids books from Sourcebooks. Open for entry in the United States, 18 years and older from 08/05/20 thru 9/9/20. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. This giveaway is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media networking site. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification email to claim their prize or a new winner will be selected. Once a winner is drawn and confirmed, the name will be announced on the Rafflecopter form. Home Jobs By Mom will be responsible for sending the winners their prize.

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Thinking About Self-Publishing? Read This

Did I ever tell you that one of my brothers wrote a book? I mean, I think I did, in a blog post about it a while back. It was something he had wanted to do for a long time and he finally did it. When it first became available to buy his book was in the top 200 on Amazon..I think it was back then. Which, when you consider all the books on Amazon that’s not too bad. Want to know something else? He self-published his book.

My brother wrote Night of the Dancing Puppets which is a horror genre. Some people say it fits in with the popular game “Five Nights At Freddy’s” I’ve never played that game or saw the movie so I can’t personally speak on that. What I do know is that it was a constant up and down adrenaline rush. My brother has lived in Florida for many years and you get a sense that the book takes place in Florida.

This book is not recommended for children as it is a horror book and some profanity is used in the book. To self-publish, he went through a site called fastpencil.com but I’m sure there are other sources as well. There are also publishing companies that can help with reviewing, printing, publishing, etc but of course there is more cost involved with that. I think if I decided I wanted to write a book someday I’d go the self-publishing route too.

Being that my brother had self-published this book and never wrote a book before, I thought this was a pretty good start. I know he was talking about doing a sequel to the book but I don’t know where he is on the process of that. I know it can take a long time until a book is finally finished and ready for shelves.

You may be shocked to know some pretty famous authors have self-published at some point or another like Mark Twain. Did you know John Grisham and Tom Clancy started off self-publishing? This an interesting piece of information from an article on the huffpost website:

Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October was acquired by the Naval Institute Press in Annapolis, Md., when an editor there, Deborah Grosvenor, became enthralled by Clancy’s novel, convinced she had a potential bestseller in her hands.

Sam Haskell also talks about self-publishing books. He wrote the book Promises I Made My Mother. Sam Haskell has an impressive resume including being an Emmy nominated producer.

So in the end, I guess what I’m trying to say is that, self-publishing can be done. If you checked out any of the links in this post then there is hope for new authors with big dreams and small budgets

This post is sponsored by Diamond Links. Any opinions expressed are my own.