I love this entire series! Mystery and intrigue, and a wonderful leading character!

I thought this was a good book with some interesting ideas. I like the approach to dating as a way to connect with God, and learn more about yourself and the areas that you need spiritual growth. I especially like the advice about having a strong support system of friends, mentors, and church family to advise and encourage you through the dating process.
This book has some wonderful Godly and Biblical guidance about dating and growing as a person.

Wonderful book! Just as good as the Blue Sword. I love this author! The story is so fantastic.

This collector's guide give the details of every Hasbro Lost Kitties toy, along with their bio, their favorite food, their hobbies, motto, life dream, and a hilarious meme for each kitten. The book includes various half-page kitty memes and a poster in the back that says "You have cat to be kitten me right now."

The illustrations are bright and colorful, and the memes are full of silly misspellings and puns. Each kitty is different and the designs are adorable!

Although most of them are cute and fun and innocent, I found a few slightly questionable kitties with weird bios. For instance, there is Drizzle, the kitty with an OCD paranoia of germs who is constantly bathing. He's "gripped with the inescapable horror that [germs] are everywhere and on everything. Drizzle once downed a whole bottle of bubble mix because he thought it was just super-clean soap, and farted bubbles for three days."
Another kitty, Peekerz, is terrified of open spaces, and stays inside her cardboard box all the time.

There is also a whole list of gluttonous kitties obsessed with food, who are obviously overweight in the illustrations, and who only list food preferences and food-related comments in their bios.

So we have kitties with mysophobia, eating disorders, OCD, and agoraphobia. This is strange in a book about toys for children!

Maybe Hasbro is trying to include all types, so that someone with mysophobia might relate to that kitty and see themselves and their issue represented in a toy, but wouldn't it be better to present healthy examples of kittens with healthy behavior? Children are so impressionable, and they might latch on to dangerous ideas.

I just find it very odd. Especially because those issues are not dealt with in a good way. Those unhealthy behaviors seem to be encouraged and celebrated, rather than treated as an obstacle to overcome on your journey to a healthy behavior pattern. If you wanted to represent behavior or health issues in a toy's bios, you should write it so that they have this issue that they are striving to overcome, not as though the issue is a good thing that is accepted and celebrated. It's badly written. Somebody on that writing staff needs a therapist or something.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Media Masters Publicity in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

I got so many wonderful and creative ideas for my planner from this book! I love how the information is organized, with chapters about different planning methods, notebooks, styles, and supplies, along with ideas for doodling, creating lists, using watercolors and acrylics, brush lettering, and even making your own notebooks from scratch.

The beauty of it is that you don't need fancy paints, pens, or notebooks to use the ideas in this book. You could just as easily set up a planner or bullet journal in a simple lined composition notebook from the dollar store. And the author gives tips about how to set up in a plain composition notebook versus a dot grid notebook.

I love all the different styles of daily, monthly, and yearly spreads! Whether you want a minimalist style or an artistic style, there is something for everyone.

There are even tutorials on how to use paints in a simple, easy way that is accessible to all of us non-artistic people. And there are tutorials on creating your own custom tabs, decorative paper clips, and adding custom pockets in the pages of your journal/planner.

At the back of the book, there are several removable pages with doodles, dividers, and banners that you can trace or copy into your own notebook, and I already traced a few into mine!

I found so many imaginative ideas in this book, with practical tips on actually scheduling, organizing, tracking, and planning. I love it! This book has it all. Literally, everything I was looking for and hoping for... this book has it.

Percival Keene is the "natural-born child" of the noble Captain Delmar, who refuses to acknowledge his illegitimate son. Percival joins the Navy as a young midshipman, determined to make his true father proud of him and gain his approval.

This book has adventure, pirates, duels of honor, shipwreck, and battles against the French. I loved the action and the fast-paced writing style. The plot is woven together really well, and every new situation has a fascinating outcome. The characters are all so interesting and brave, and I loved the close, trusting relationships they formed.

Percival is the perfect main character, taking action, carefully calculating his next move, emotional at times, and craving connection to his true family. He is incredibly brave in the face of danger, and very intelligent.

I only wish that the women in this story had any kind of character depth or development. They are barely characters; more like dolls propped up in the background for scenery. Still, the main story is just so good, that I can forgive the author for not giving the ladies more 'screen time'.

I have enjoyed so many of Marryat's books, and I can't wait to read more from the Heart of Oak Sea Classics.

Are the Justice League heroes always perfect? Or do they sometimes make mistakes, eat too much cake, smell like fish, make bad fashion choices, lose the video game, or leave a job half-done?
The Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Hawkgirl, Cyborg, and Aquaman answer all their fan mail from kids who wonder, "Are superheroes just like me?"

I loved the way the hilarious fan mail stories are woven into a bigger story as the Justice League battles an invasion of insectoid aliens. The writing is really clever to bring together so many different snippets of superhero life with little glimpses of the regular kids who are their most devoted fans.

I LOVED the artwork! It's clear and colorful, with beautiful panels that really show the action and enhance the comedy. The cartoony style is perfect for this type of graphic novel.

This book made me laugh, and I enjoyed every page!


Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

This biography of Jane Austen does a very thorough job of seizing on every letter, every mention, every tiny detail that can be gleaned about the famous author; unfortunately, that isn't much. Jane's sister, Cassandra, destroyed many of her letters after Jane's death. Jane's brothers and nephews and nieces didn't preserve her letters as faithfully as they should have. The result is that there are few original writings left from one of the best-loved authors of all time, and little is known of her day to day life.

However, the author does a wonderful job of piecing together letters from cousins, diary entries of nieces and neighbors, along with the few portraits and tin-type photographs of her family and friends.

In fact, I felt like the author spent too much time focusing on the cousins and aunts and friends, whom I didn't care about, and too little time actually describing Jane. The book was too long, and I got bored with the endless stories about the neighbors.

I did like that when the author indulged in conjecture about some detail of Jane Austen's life, it was clearly explained that it was only an educated guess. That way I could trust which were the verified facts, and which were only imagination.

I also enjoyed the chapters that focused on her work, analyzing the main characters and the deep themes in her books, and comparing those to her personal life at the time. There is some good insight into her writing and the extraordinary power of her imagination!

If you want a quick overview of Jane Austen's life, this is NOT the book for you. If you want details about every person she ever knew, you would enjoy this. Just be prepared to forget which brother is which, because she had a lot of brothers and twice as many sisters-in-law (because some of her brothers married multiple times.)

Ælfwyn is a shy, bookish maiden in Anglo-Saxon England, caught in the middle of her uncle the king's political plots. When the king forces her to choose between marrying an old man or becoming a nun, Ælfwyn runs away to become a singing bard on the open road. But circumstances drag her back into her uncle's clutches, and desperate men try to use her position in the king's family for their own political gain.

I really identified with Ælfwyn's character, because she loves to read. She is shy, and is frightened to ride the large and powerful horse her mother gives her. For most of the book, she depends on other people to tell her what to do and where to go, but when it really matters, she makes her own decisions, discovering courage and resilience from deep inside.

I liked the writing style in this book. It really pulls you in to the story, painting a picture of Old England with a few settings, people, and events drawn from real history. I especially liked the scenes when Ælfwyn is on the road, singing her songs and telling stories from her books to entertain the common people.

The plot has plenty of action and suspense, with warriors and battles lurking around the corner in every scene. But the focus is on how this young teenage girl deals with the danger and anxiety, and the subtle influence she exerts over the outcome of those wars. She seems so powerless at first, but her knowledge and intelligence give her power.

One of things I loved about this book is how Ælfwyn manages to take control of her own life choices, without needing to carry a sword or be strong in battle. She remains herself; quiet and bookish, but she begins to command respect from others, and discovers her power to change her life through the words she uses. This is NOT a warrior maiden story. It's a word-warrior story. Words are her weapons. Her mind is her armor.

Brilliant story-telling!