Friday, May 30, 2014

Murder, Mi Amore by Cara Marsi

This was a very entertaining story. So, Lexie Cortese travels to Rome for a month long vacation [nice] after ending her relationship with her sleazy former fiancé. Well when criminals mistake her for a point of contact, she is now being investigated by a super hot Interpol agent Dominic Brioni. Well when crazy crimes begin to occur around  Lexie and Dominic has to constantly intervene to protect, he begins to questions if she really is a criminal. Sparks fly and eventually Dominic has to put everything on the line to save his lady love. 
This is why the story is fun, all these crazy things going on and in the middle of these crimes you have these two having a sort of love at first sight romance, it works. Plus, it’s a kicker that for some weird reason Dominic is always getting a few too many good punches landed on him, which I think he only did so Lexie could be all over him and his injuries. Read, you'll definitely have lots of fun.

Rating 4 out of 5
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The People Inside by Ray Fawkes

Think the movie Crash, where it jumps between stories for a series of people. This collection follows the love lives of 24 people and the how their lives progress, change and fall apart. 

It was ok, poetry that unites the all the scenes is appealing as it makes you feel, but ultimately none of the 24 characters, with the exception of 2, really engage you. Not to mention that what you can follow from the skipping story is depressing.

Rating 3 out of 5
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Compromising Positions by Mary Whitney

Loved the story and the way the author makes the characters more complex than the usual one dimensional characters in other love stories. The storyline is very political, but its ok and it works that the author doesn’t hold any punches on hot issues.  

The main guy, Michael Grath is a Republican [gasp, he's very moderate and you can't really blame him his rich parents raised him that way] and he is also a recently elected congressman. The story starts off with him meeting the main girl, Jessie Clark a hard core Democrat an also a recently elected congresswoman. The way they meet is so funny, Michael and a Republican man he was speaking to mistake her for a waitress [oh no they didn't], it works out in a really amusing way. 

Well time passes, Michael still thinks of Jessie and vice-versa. Eventually they form a friendship and then later begin a relationship. Points for the author, they don't jump into bed in the first 3 chapters, however, I will say that they don't share a kiss until half way through the book and they never have a real date [or at least not one that the readers are privied to] and that is why this book lost points with me.  

Its definitely worth the read, you have a strong male character and an equally strong female character.

Rating 4 out of 5
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The Innocent's Surrender by Sara Craven

Not a good book, the characters were just awful. The main guy pretty much rapes the main girl in like chapter 3 of the book, after that the book just goes down hill. He never apologizes, which really doesn't matter because its not like you can say "hey, sorry I forced you to sleep with me". Then the main girl basically develops like Stockholm syndrome and spends all her time saying how much she loves him, even though most of the book he is just a jerk that leaves her on a private island. 

The only reason I gave the book 2 stars is because of the feuding started of by the main guys dad and the main girls adoptive mom. That was the only dramatically engaging event in the book. Other than that this book tanked, this story might have worked in a different decade when views were extremely skewed, and note I used "might" because honestly I doubt it would have ever worked. 

Side note the main characters are Natasha and Alex, didn't bother using their names in the rest of the review because they are not memorable characters.

Rating 2 out of 5
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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Burn the Orphanage Volume 1: Born to Lose by Sina Grace, Daniel Freedman


The story for the title was explained in the first like 10 pages and then after that it was just random stories thrown together. Which would not have been bad if any of these stories had any point. The main character was a read douche and his friends were annoying; none of these characters were even remotely likable or relateable. Normally in graphic novels, the characters are a bit far fetched, but they have likable  qualities that readers like and relate to. Not the case here.



Read if you want, its short and quick but ultimately a bore.

Rating 1 out of 5
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20906547

Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight, Volume 1 by Alex de Campi


Think the crappy effect poor / nudity rich horror movies from like the late 70's - 80's and that’s this book.



The graphics were cool and all those movie posters they had in the book made for amusing read, so I say decent.

Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight, Volume 1Rating 3 out of 5
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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Manifest Destiny, Vol. 1 by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts (Illustrator), Owen Gieni (Illustrator)

One word "plant zombies", or is that two; either way, they were awesome. Some weird plant infecting humans and animals and turning them into undead plant zombies. 

Enough about zombies, the story actually follows Lewis and Clark [yeah, the first guys to explore the west, now part as the United States] as they set off by order of the president to explore and catalog all new discoveries and dangers of the west. 

Along the way they encounter bison/horse/human monsters and man eating plants with mind control zombie turning powers. Way cool and honestly if history had occurred this way, history in school would have been way more fun.

Rating 5 out of 5
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Rebecca's Lost Journals (Inside Out #1.1-1.4; 2.5) by Lisa Renee Jones

Collects Rebecca's Lost Journals Volumes 1 - 4 and The Master Undone 2.5 [Part of the Inside Out Series] 

The Journals can be read before the first book in the series or after or even as a stand alone; however, The Master Undone must be read after book 2 of the series [I only read the Journals, I skipped this one since I still haven't read books 1 and 2]. 

The Journals are written by Rebecca Mason, who inspires the events of the series. In the Journals, Rebecca writes about her journey into becoming submissive and finding herself. 

The Journals are captivating and engaging and if you start off with the Journals you will definitely be intrigued to read the whole series, I know I was, I already got the rest of the books. 

For their genre they really deliver the action packed drama we all crave in our books.

Rating 4.5 out of 5 

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The MacKenzies: Dane, Thomas, Riley, Cooper (The MacKenzie Family #1-5) by Liliana Hart

This is a collection of the 5 super short novellas in the MacKenzies' series, they are not for young readers but you have to read these so you can get into the whole series and trust me, when the cloaks and daggers begins in the next section of the series, it gets good.


I got this one for free from iBooks and I had mixed feelings, and by mixed feelings I couldn't decide who I wanted to smack more Dane or Charlotte. Dane left town and a young Charlotte pregnant (granted he didn't know), Dane decided he wanted to follow his dreams and all. In the years he's been gone he occasionally thinks of Charlotte (yet he has no issues being with other women). Dane move bank to town and learns that Charlotte has also moved back and now runs an auto shop. I hate that despite Charlotte's supposedly tough stance she immediately has sex with him. Dane later learns he might have a son and goes to confront Charlotte, they have sex again.

I hated that Charlotte basically lived her romantic life in stand still since the day Dane left. This is what I hated about her, Dane had no problem moving on (even temporarily) and she turns down pretty much everyone until Dane comes back into her life.

Rating 1 out of 5
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This novella was more fun, I like Cat and Thomas more. Thomas is a doctor and Cat is a thief; the story starts off with Cat stealing something. Cat flees once she steals an artifact, but she's shot, yet somehow she makes it to Montana and ends up at the MacKenzie farm. Obviously, Thomas tends to her wound and well things get heated. After handing the artifact over to the proper authorities (yeah, she steals things from criminals, how Robin Hood) she returns to Montana to be with Thomas. I would have wished the story was longer and we had more back story on Cat.

Rating 2 out of 5
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This story is a little longer than the others and a little more interesting, Riley is a professor and he meets Maggie who has a stolen artifact (no she didn't steal it, it was sent to her by a colleague). Well bad people are after the artifact so Riley takes Maggie to Montana; they stay at Cooper's (Riley's brother) apartment and things get very heated between Riley, Maggie and all the toys Cooper has in his apartment. Eventually, the bad guy comes for the artifact and Riley and Maggie take care of him and they get together. Its fun, it's interesting and it was nice.

Rating 3 out of 5
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Of all the MacKenzie novellas this is my favorite. Cooper is way into BDSM and Claire has been in love with him forever. Cooper has a thing for Claire, but he doesn't act on it because he's 10 years older than Claire (what an idiot love doesn't have an age). Anyway, Cooper is helping in a drug investigation and the main baddie is is a BDSM club and is chatting up Claire, Cooper interferes and things get crazy from there. This one is my favorite because its a preset to how the rest of the MacKenzie series go. The other MacKenzie's are active military or some sort of undercover government agents going after cartels, so there is a lot of action.

Rating 4 out of 5
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This one is just a feel good cute story; Grant is in love with Annabeth and Annabeth is in love with Grant, except neither knows how to tell the other. But, hey its Christmas eve and miracles do tend to happen and when Grant heads home and sees Annabeth accidentally fall into the lake she was skating on. Grant saves Annabeth and they finally tell each other how they feel and have themselves a very Merry Christmas.

Rating 3 out of 5
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Sunday, May 25, 2014

Super-Ego: Family Matters by Caio Oliveira

This one was hilarious, it’s like a parody of the established superhero, except it’s told from the point of a guy who used to be a villain and after landing in prison somehow turns his life around and becomes the shrink all the supers go to.


It’s a short 92 page comic that is amusing, the graphic are your very typical hero comic book type. I say read, it’s funny because you never really think of heroes needed shrinks, that’s usually saved for the crazies.

Rating 4 out of 5
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The Extinction Parade, Volume 1 by Max Brooks, Raúlo Cáceres (Illustrations)

The actual graphic novel is 160 pages; the Netgalley ARC only gives you the first 84 pages, so that sucked. But from what was available, it’s a pretty good story. The novel is told from the point of view of a vampire and she discusses how in the beginning the zombie epidemic was a good thing, it made it easier for vampires to hunt humans, who are basically ignorant to vampire existence and their only concern is destroying zombies.

The zombies are you standard walking dead, they’re brainless and hungry, no thought process whatsoever, they don’t go after vampires, because they have no pulsing blood. The story is told in the form of a reflective, when it finally dawns upon vampires that the zombie epidemic doesn’t just affect humans it affect them as well.


The story was interesting; the graphics were awesome, they were bloody and gory, total horror show type, so again awesome. Plus the vamps and zombies weren’t sparkly or romanticized so huge bonus.

Rating 4 out of 5
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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Codename: Action Volume 1 by Chris Roberson, Jonathan Lau (Illustrations)

Loved it, its the first book in it's series, with Captain Action [Agent 1001 at the beginning of the book] as the main character.

The story takes place sometime in the 50's and we have bad guys trying to start WWIII, which is crazy because WWII would not be too far behind. The bad guys are cloning world leaders to push towards war and at the same time are also cloning vigilantes, because you gotta crush home. 

We see characters like Crusader and Hornet and it works because in this series, they play secondary characters that show how Captain Action starts off and comes to be, while at the same time the book shows us Captain Action's future arch-nemesis Dr. Thorpe [evil looking alien brain guy]. I say read, it was fun, it was cool because it's more James Bond cool, so it rocks.

Rating 5 out of 5
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The Heart of the Beast Hardcover by Dean Motter, Judith Dupre, Sean Phillips (Illustrations)

The characters were obnoxious, Victor is the beast, but nothing happens in the book that really portrays him as beast, I need more guts and gore; the story felt whatever, even though they give a background into the era of the story in the introduction. This is a 20th anniversary reprint of "The Heart of the Beast", so I'm cutting it some slack because 20 years ago I thought the greatest thing in the world was finishing elementary. I just could not get really into this story; though I will say the illustrations were creepy good.

Rating 2 out of 5
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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Unwanted Wife (Unwanted #1) by Natasha Anders

Talk about an emotional ringer. I read this entire book in one day, I didn't even sleep, it was that addicting. Ms. Anders really knows how to deliver, this book has everything; blackmail, pregnancy, suspected infidelity, evil family, douche bag guy who redeems himself in an amazing manner. Its very obvious I have a major weakness for romance novel and this one book hit every single point that makes a reader want to read romance novels.

The story is about Alessandro de Lucci and Theresa de Lucci, they've been married for about a year and a half; when they first married Theresa was so in love Alessandro, she believed him to be in love with her, but she soon learn how horrible and cold Alessandro really was.

The story starts off with Alessandro and Theresa in bed, after they're done Theresa who has been really unhappy for a while just blurts out that she wants a divorce. Alessandro says no that she needs to give him a son first. After some very heated arguments Theresa overhears a phone call between Alessandro and her father, where she learns that the only reason Alessandro married her was because he was blackmailed by her father and that the only way he can get a divorce is after they have a son (has to be a boy and what a horrible father), at this point I am hating Alessandro, he's been so awful to Theresa. Well, hearing this absolutely crushes Theresa, she realizes that everything has been a lie orchestrated by her horrible father and Alessandro. At this point Theresa come to completely hate Alessandro and Alessandro realizes he's been a horrible person to Theresa who knew nothing about her father's scheme and so he wants to make it up to Theresa and salvage their relationship.

Theresa decides that their relationship is beyond salvageable and to her dismay she soon discover's she's pregnant. Throughout the pregnancy Alessandro tries to get close to her, but she doesn't trust him anymore and continues to push him away. When Theresa gives birth to baby girl she is torn between happiness for her baby and dismay that its a girl and she has to continue married to Alessandro. Alessandro is happy because it means that Theresa has to stay with him. Alessandro really does love Theresa, but with her father's blackmail he comes to resent her, because he thought she was part of the blackmail.

Normally the guys in these stories take forever to redeem themselves, but Alessandro grows on you quickly, because he is not afraid to admit his mistake and try to fix it. A lot of the later angst in the book is mostly caused by Alessandro's inability to just come out and spill everything like who that Francessca lady is. She gets mentioned often enough that its surprising he waits until the end of the book to explain who she was. I also hated that Theresa still tries to maintain some form of relationship with her father, I mean, the guy is about as awful as they can possibly be. I really liked the epilogue, they have redo wedding and this time Theresa gets to pick her dream wedding.

Overall this was a very engaging book, it doesn't let you put it down and going by this book, I can't wait for the next one in the Unwanted series

Rating 4.5 out of 5
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Monday, May 19, 2014

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Code Red Volume 1 by Patrick Shand

Britney Waters aka. Agent Red is a werewolf that works for the government. In this novel, dark forces are planning to take over the world and in Volume 1 we get and intro into the action and a glimpse of who the major baddy is.

I liked the action, girl can kick ass. What I didn't like is that come on guys, no girl is gonna be out there fighting bad guys without a sports-bra; zip-up with nothing underneath would be beyond uncomfortable for fighting crime. That bit of oversight is what dropped this mystic, sci-fi, action packed novel down a star. I recommend reading, its a better version of the fairy tales we're familiar with.

Rating 4 out of 5
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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Street Fighter IV Volume 1: Wages of Sin Hc by Ken Siu-Chong, Jim Zub, Joe Ng (Illustrations), Eric Vedder (Illustrations), Takeshi Miyazawa (Illustrations)

Loved it. It takes me back to the Street Fighter games way back when you used a cartridge. The illustrations are awesome and I liked how all the short stories interconnected to the main story.

The bonus stories were a nice kick and I am dying to read more on Crimson Viper, she's so super spy / bad guy / double agent; she was my favorite in the book.

Street Fighter fans will enjoy this book and so will action comic book fans. The only thing I didn't like was that I felt it ended too soon and I need more on Number 15, the baddy in the book.

Rating 4 out of 5
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Friday, May 16, 2014

His Sister's Wedding by Carol Rose

This book follows the premise of many of Ms. Rose's books; girl believes in love and guy has had some issues with love, so now he only believes in lust.

Lillie has been asked to plan her brother's wedding and his fiance's brother is super opposed to the wedding, but since his sister insist he help Lillie plan the wedding, he can't say no.

Luke however, is planning to convince Lillie to stop the wedding, but those sparks fly and into action. Lillie and Luke fall in love, but Luke is too stubborn to admit love.

Anyway, its an entertaining read, its quick and short read; Luke eventually stops being an ass, accepts his sister getting married so young and he even drops down on one knee for Lillie.

Rating 3 out of 5
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Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Fourth Child (9 Months Later #19) by C.J. Carmichael

Claire has been married to Kirk for 12 years, they have 3 daughters and Claire has just learned there is fourth on the way. On the day Claire is about to tell Kirk, the slime ball blindsides her by saying he's in love with someone else, a woman that works at this office [not his secretary], Claire is pissed and tells him to leave.

Later Kirk suggest they try counseling because he has some epiphany and realizes what he's doing is what his Dad did to him and his mom. But, and this is rich he actually tells Claire, I will stop seeing the other woman if you agree to counseling; like WTF, how about just divorcing his lying, cheating ass.

While Claire is at home, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and taking care of the kids, Kirk relaxes by wining and dining some skank instead of his wife. Kirk actually tells Claire that he feels she doesn't appreciate him, that she is always nagging him to help with the kids, to come home earlier, to spend more time with them. So, instead of saying "hey, wife lets go to dinner", no he takes the office girl. Perhaps the only silver lining is that he never slept with the other woman, he only had an emotional affair and the occasional make-out session. 

Even though counseling helps and Claire and Kirk eventually reconcile, I still think Kirk is an ass. Instead of putting so much effort into having his emotional affair, he should have put the effort into being with his family and if he felt that his wife didn't give him enough attention or he felt neglected, he should have talked to her first, not the other woman. As for the other woman, she knew he was married, that he had a family, what she did was just low, getting involved with a married man and nearly ruining a family just because her marriage didn't work out.

I would have liked the book better if there had been a confrontation between Claire and the other woman. I didn't like the topic of the book, but the fact that it got me raving gives it a decent score.

Rating 3 out of 5
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Friday, May 9, 2014

Skinny Bitch Gets Hitched (Skinny Bitch #2) by Kim Barnouin

The book is told from the point of Clementine (Clem) Cooper aka Skinny Bitch, a hardcore vegan [yuck, give me a thick sirloin or some ribs any day], just got engaged to her boyfriend Zach, a meat eater [a normal person, dude owns a steakhouse and huge company]; between dealing with her new restaurant 'Clementines's No Crap Cafe', her soon to be mother in-law from hell, and a best friend getting engaged to a somewhat jerk she's got a lot on her plate.

Things get really crazy when Dominique her soon to be mother in-law starts planning the wedding and you can just imagine how things go. Clem is a say it how it is kind of girl and her Dominique is very posh, so things don't always jive. 

Then her friend Sara gets engaged to a loud mouth jerk, who surprisingly as the book progresses Clem learns the guy truly loves Sara, even if he has a very crazy weird way of expressing it [he constantly embarrasses her]. 

In the story Clem also gets a list of things to check-off before she gets married by Zach's aunt, Jocelyn. In the list, there are series of things she has to be sure of before she decides to get married. My favorite one was the 'if you plan to change him, return the ring'; there is also one where you ask your partner to list the reason's they love you [this is where Sara's beau really proves himself] and to save the list.

Anyway, things get really strained with Clem and Zach; Clem feels that Zach is pulling away and at the same time we don't really know what's eating Zach until way later in the book [guys really need to learn to say what's up not just bottle it in, girl's aren't mind readers], but the good thing is we eventually get out happy ever after and it was an enjoyable read. Plus I loved that Clem had the little devil / angel on the shoulder, that was good.

Rating 4 out of 5
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Monday, May 5, 2014

Indestructible Volume 1 by Jeff Kline and Javi Garron

This book is hilarious, it takes place in a world where there are mutants who become superheroes and villains of course because we can't have heroes without villains. Anyway, Greg Pincus is your average guy, who by sheer luck survives being shot at point-blank [had a flask in the pocket], in his dazed/shocked state he stumbles home. 

Well video of his "heroics" makes him the latest superhero sensation, only problem is he has no powers and people won't listen, everyone insist he is a hero. From the police to his dumb as hell roommate/only friends [if I were him I'd look for a replacement, not a good fried] everyone wants something. The ending of Volume 1 makes you want Volume 2 because this is an amusing read and you want to know how it will work out for the powerless wonder.

Rating 4 out of 5
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The MAXX: Maxximized Volume 1 by Sam Kieth

I couldn't get behind this book, the storyline felt random with no consistency, the only good thing about this book was the graphics. Its a short quick read which I guess you can pick up if you really need or want something to do. I very rarely get turned away from a graphic novel, but this one had absolutely no engaging characters.

The book focuses on a homeless superhero, but honestly his neuroticness isn't even endearing its just weird. At least it was only 30 minutes that it took from time, I'm sure that once the second volume is released the storyline might fall into place but for now, it didn't engage me.

Rating 2 out of 5
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Ariel Bradley, Spy for General Washington by Lynda Durrant

This book tells the a quick short story of how Ariel Bradley became a spy for General George Washington's army [before he was president he was a general in the war for independence]; the story is really short but its good for I would say children ages 5-6. The story is small with some history that is engaging for young children. 

The only thing I didn't like was that it was too short, but then adult me is not the target audience; my inner child on the other hand is asking a bunch of questions now, so it was a good read.

Rating 4 out of 5
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Sunday, May 4, 2014

Pretty Deadly #1 (Pretty Deadly #1) by Emma Rios and Jordie Bellair

This is the collection of Pretty Deadly Issues #1-5, the story follows Death's daughter and it is rockin'. It combines mystery of death with the old west; this book delivers for anyone who likes an action packed novel, you've got guns and swords and monsters, it can't get any better than that. 

The story is very creative and imaginative, the drawing are incredible. In the story there is a butterfly asking a skeleton rabbit [creepy / cool right] about Ginny [Death's daughter] and her quest as a new death was rising. It's pretty cool and would totally make a great cartoon. Have to totally get my self the entire series.

Rating 5 out of 5
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Postcards from a War by Vanita Oelschlager, Mike Blanc (Illustrator)

This is the story of boy coping with his mother's military deployment, the story follows the boy's conversation with his grandfather. The grandfather tell the boy about how he felt when his father was deployed to serve in World War II.

This is a really good book to explain to young children why their mommy or daddy is going away for a short time. Military deployment causes a lot of grief for families, especially young children who have a hard time understanding why a parent is going away for a while. Vanita has a great way of writing books that put things into perspective for young children in a way that it is easy for them to understand things without belittling the seriousness of things.

Rating 5 out of 5
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Out of the Blue: A book of color idioms and silly pictures by Vanita Oelschlager, Robin Hegan (Illustrations)

This book is strictly for children ages 4 to 5 years old, at least in my opinion. This book focuses on idioms and colors. It explains phrases like "once in a blue moon" or "green with envy", the illustrations are creative and entertaining. If you're reading this as adult, you'll think the book is lacking, but for young children this book is good.

Vanita has great talent for writing books that are good for children barely coming into the world of books and this book is no exception it truly is a "horse of a different color" and children will love it.

Rating 5 out of 5
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Thursday, May 1, 2014

Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries by Vanita Oelschlager, Robin Hegan

This book is about idioms, you know, those little phrases that are so common in out language now days. Children will learn phrases like "packed like sardines" or "couch potato".

I recommend this book for children between the ages of 4 and 6. Its not very long and the drawing are very amusing, which is important for young children. The book could have been a little longer, but other than that it was good.

Rating 3.5 out of 5
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