Courageous Love: An Andrea Carter Book (Circle C Milestones) by Susan K. Marlow

Courageous Love: An Andrea Carter Book (Circle C Milestone)  by Susan K. Marlow 

 I have read all the other Andrea Carter books and was excited when I got to read the author's new book! I loved reading this book and I wish it didn't have to end. Andi is just the same as always and I just loved this book! I am fourteen years old and know that other girls around my age will enjoy this author's books as much as I did!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for my review. 

More about the book:                            
Andrea Carter is finally pulling her own weight on the Circle C Ranch she loves. The only thing she loves more than helping to run the ranch is spending time racing and stunt-riding on her horse Shasta, with the help of wrangler Riley Prescott. Little does she know that when she and Riley stumble onto a mysterious cut in the fence around her brother's prize calves, life is about to get far more exciting--and dangerous.
A cryptic warning tied around a brick crashes through the window at a family party. Then cattle begin to die. When the horse barn catches fire, Andi knows this is more than just coincidence. But who is trying to hurt her family--and why? Evidence begins to point to criminals from her brother Justin's past who want revenge. But that discovery may be too late to keep Andi and her brother's family out of danger.
Now Riley is her only hope of rescue. Can he find her before she disappears from the Circle C forever? Can she keep everyone else safe until then?
The fourth volume in the Circle C Milestones quartet, Courageous Love is high on action, danger, and drama, and full of appealing characters readers love. Andi's final adventure, sparked with a little romance, is sure to please Marlow's legions of loyal readers who want a happy ending for this frontier heroine.

review of cookbook: The Whole Coconut Cookbook by Nathalie Fraise

The Whole Coconut Cookbook
by Nathalie Fraise

This small cookbook is delightful! You really can't go wrong with coconut, nature's superfood!
Every recipe in this book is excellent and easy to prepare yet full of flavour and sure to impress. We highly recommend this book for cooks of all levels and interests. Those who are looking into gluten-free diet will be stoked by the recipes and potential in this cookbook.
This book would also make a great gift for a variety of occasions.
As always with this publisher, the photographs in this cookbook rival the quality of the recipes themselves! Everything is top-notch and excellent. A great coffee table book as well as practical cookbook! Do try this book out and enjoy.

We received this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.

This beautiful and inspiring recipe collection helps you incorporate nature’s perfect superfood—the coconut—into your everyday cooking. From tangy coconut yogurt for breakfast to creamy coconut curry for dinner, The Whole Coconut Cookbook showcases infinite ways to enjoy this nutrition-packed fruit.    

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

by Timothy Snyder

This is a large hardcover book which goes in depth into the history of the Holocaust. All historians will be amazed and delighted by the information contained within this book. The author goes to great depths to unlock the mysteries and questions behind this tragic time in history. Most importantly, Timothy Snyder brings to light the warnings which we may have missed due to our short-sightedness. What warnings can we take from the Holocaust for our own generation? This book is an amazing revelation. 
My only concern is that the book is so large and in depth that the majority of readers will not be able to finish it or understand it to the maximum. A smaller, overview-style version would be great for easier reading and wider impact. 
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for my review. 
A brilliant, haunting, and profoundly original portrait of the defining tragedy of our time. 

In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first. Based on new sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earthrecounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think, and thus all the more terrifying.

The Holocaust began in a dark but accessible place, in Hitler's mind, with the thought that the elimination of Jews would restore balance to the planet and allow Germans to win the resources they desperately needed. Such a worldview could be realized only if Germany destroyed other states, so Hitler's aim was a colonial war in Europe itself. In the zones of statelessness, almost all Jews died. A few people, the righteous few, aided them, without support from institutions. Much of the new research in this book is devoted to understanding these extraordinary individuals. The almost insurmountable difficulties they faced only confirm the dangers of state destruction and ecological panic. These men and women should be emulated, but in similar circumstances few of us would do so. 

By overlooking the lessons of the Holocaust, Snyder concludes, we have misunderstood modernity and endangered the future. The early twenty-first century is coming to resemble the early twentieth, as growing preoccupations with food and water accompany ideological challenges to global order. Our world is closer to Hitler's than we like to admit, and saving it requires us to see the Holocaust as it was -- and ourselves as we are.  Groundbreaking, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, Black Earth reveals a Holocaust that is not only history but warning.

Owls: Our Most Charming Bird by Matt Sewell

Owls: Our Most Charming Bird by Matt Sewell

Need we say any more bout this book? If you love owls, and think they are ''our most charming bird'', then needless to say, you will be delighted with this small book by Matt Sewell! This little guide to owls gives a friendly look at a number of the species. Each type of owl is highlighted by a lovely, delicate watercolor by author and illustrator Matt Sewell. Among the fifty species presented in this book are the Eurasian Pygmy owl, the Great Gray Owl, the Screech Owl, and Barn Owl. This book will make an excellent Christmas gift, stocking-stuffer or just a simple any time gift this season! How can you disappoint with such a charming subject as owls?

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alex Kershaw

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris

by Alex Kershaw 

     We all love history and have studied it enthusiastically and in depth over the course of our school and (for some of us) college years! World War Two history ranks high in our list of favorite time periods to study. It is no surprise then, that Avenue of Spies caught our eye and interest when we first saw it publicised!  Indeed, the story contained within (see below synopsis) is fascinating and riveting. However, what shocked us was the quality of writing. The author has so many good details and history to recount but and perhaps therefore throws valuable writing style to the wind. In value, we found the writing equivalent to that of an 8th grader. We found this extremely disappointing, since the content of this book was worth reading for sure. The writing quality just made the read longer and more tedious. 

We received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

The best-selling author of The Liberator brings to life the incredible true story of an American doctor in Paris, and his heroic espionage efforts during World War II

The leafy Avenue de Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris's hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son Phillip at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high. Just down the road at Number 31 was the "mad sadist" Theodor Dannecker, an Eichmann protégé charged with deporting French Jews to concentration camps. And Number 84 housed the Parisian headquarters of the Gestapo, run by the most effective spy hunter in Nazi Germany.

From his office at the American Hospital, itself an epicenter of Allied and Axis intrigue, Jackson smuggled fallen Allied fighter pilots safely out of France, a job complicated by the hospital director's close ties to collaborationist Vichy. After witnessing the brutal round-up of his Jewish friends, Jackson invited Liberation to officially operate out of his home at Number 11--but the noose soon began to tighten. When his secret life was discovered by his Nazi neighbors, he and his family were forced to undertake  a journey into the dark heart of the war-torn continent from which there was little chance of return.

Drawing upon a wealth of primary source material and extensive interviews with Phillip Jackson, Alex Kershaw recreates the City of Light during its darkest days. The untold story of the Jackson family anchors the suspenseful narrative, and Kershaw dazzles readers with the vivid immediacy of the best spy thrillers. Awash with the tense atmosphere of World War II's Europe, Avenue of Spies introduces us to the brave doctor who risked everything to defy Hitler.