Finding Monsters

Details: Finding Monsters YA book by Liss Thomas.  Missy has been sick with cancer since she was young.  Now that she is dying, she is thinking more about how good her life has been, trying to drown out the voice that keeps telling her what she has missed out on.  What if just this once, since she doesn't have much longer to live, she gives into this voice, and listens.  What if that voice belongs to something living. What if that voice is non other than the monster under her bed.  What if monsters are real, and you just keep finding more and more.

My Review:  I love reading great books, YA, included, because they are usually more fun, more light, and the creative powers it takes to entertain a teenager, is a lot more than what it takes to entertain an adult or child.  But that's just my option, from my own experience growing up reading non stop.  Liss Thomas wrote this book very well.  In fact, after I finished I was reading some of the notes, and she says when she first wrote this, that it was intended to be a short story series.  That really made me excited because I really want to write a short story series for younger children.  But then I continued reading her notes and she was told by a great agent that there just isn't any interest in short story series. Which was a big bummer, but if she can turn a short story series into a great novel, then there's hope for me too.

Finding Monsters is an amazing book.  I love the details.  When it comes to my personal opinion, details count big time.  I want to see each character, and feel their emotions.  A reader should be so sucked into the book that they feel like they surface just to get air, food, and go to the bathroom before diving back under for more.  This isn't at all what I expected to read, it was better.  Just from the title I knew it meant monsters under beds.  So the twist put on that was unexpected, beautiful, and exciting.  I'm so excited for the next part of this book, its going to bug me until Liss is finished with it.

Pros: great story line, great characterization, amazing details.  I love the lesson of what was once weak, is now strong.  I love the lesson of Cancer can't get me down!

Cons: none

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
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Hym and Hur by Phillip Frey

Details: Hym and Hur are not of this world.  They are immortal
and have special powers only humans dream of.  Hym loves pranks, and Hur loves doing good deeds.  But they both love creating happiness in others, for others.  When this amazing couple combines their prankster practices, and their good deed practices trouble usually is right around the corner.  And in this short story trouble starts with D, as in Death, the trickster of all tricksters.  Can Hym and Hur cancel all the bad that Death wants them to do, without hurting more people?  Genre: fantasy, and comedy.

My Review:  This is a great little short story.  Hym and Hur are really cute.  Death is well, just as anyone would expect Death to be.  I love how sensitive, almost naive and innocent Hur is.  Hym is more of a mystery than I would like him to be, but we do learn how much Hur means to him.  Even though, what I read was really good, I almost feel like there needs to be at least 2 more chapters.  I was surprised when the book ended, and where it ended.  I felt like the plot wasn't completed.  Closure wasn't even there.  If there was another chapter at the beginning of the book, and another chapter either in the middle or towards the end, then this would be a much better book.  I really wanted to see more trouble from Death in that the main male character would be doing more than what he did.  ( I don't want to spoil the book, so this sounds vague.)  Seeing Hym and Hur working more together on getting the main characters (both the man and woman) to work together, or perhaps doing something else, that is where I was left without closure.  The woman didn't do anything to express her love or admiration for the man, but he gave everything to her.  I know that many relationships are like that in real life, but I felt like there needed to be something more in this story, because of how Hym and Hur are, and how they work.

Pros: great writing skills, the plot is cool, I really like the details that we are given about the characters.

Cons: I'm left without closure and many questions.  I felt like there needed to be a bit more written before the story ended.

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Rating: thumbs up for great writing, thumbs down for lack of closure

Hidden Under Her Heart

Details: Maryanne is working at making something of herself and her life by not having sex anymore. She's sick of getting tricked, and run over by man pigs, while trying to make her father proud of her, finally. Lucas Knight is focused on winning the Ironman Triathlon, is distancing himself from church, and trying to over come the racial issues his parents have. When Maryanne and Lucas collide, its not just for fun and games, but soon becomes a life threatening for Maryanne, career threatening for Lucas. Can they find out who is framing Lucas and who raped Maryanne at the church youth activity at the Preacher's home.

My Review: I just love Rachelle Ayala's books! Each one makes you fall in love with the characters, you become a character in her book. You live the adventure, the romance, the thrill, the mystery. Putting the book down is literally impossible until you've finished it, because it becomes your life. You must find the bad guy, must save those in trouble, and bring those who should be together, together for their love and happiness. I highly recommend reading this book, but all of her books are great!  Her characters are always very real.  Barry is quiet a person in this novel.  Details are very important to Rachelle.

Pros: amazing novel, one of my favorite

Cons: none

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Crime and Passion

Details: Crime and Passion by Chantel Rhondeau.  Starting a new life is never easy, but always a fun challenge, making new friends, being bombarded by guys wanting to date you, whom you're not interested in.  But when being the new girl in town isn't enough, why not find a dead body on the beach while working.  And find your life turn upside down because of the murder case you're now the key witness to. Madeline is that person.  Leaving behind a horrible love life, that ended when she caught her soon to be husband in bed with her maid of honor.  Now living in a new town, new state, and living in her dream beach house, getting a new life is coming at a price, and if the police don't catch the murderer, will everything Madeline loves die? Will everything Madeline wants to get away from come back to haunt her?  Can she learn to trust, learn to love, and truly be loved again?  Or will she end up with nothing once again?

My Review:  Chantel Rhondeau is a great author.  Mixing crime with passion, love, romance, mystery works well with her style of writing.  Each time you have an idea of what will happen next, you look at how many more pages left, and think "Well, what else does she have in store for us?"  Each character is painted in perfect detail.  You can see each face, each person's personality, and by the time each character has been completed you can see their thoughts.   Its really quiet intriguing.  There is mild language, and a few love scenes towards the middle and end.  Chantel Rhondeau covers topics like: insecurities, self worth, proper manners between girl and boy friends, brain washing, mental break downs, and abuse and foster care.

Pros: well written, great fleshing of the characters, successful plot twists

Cons: none

                                                       My Rating 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Terra Vonnel and the Skulls of Aries

Details: The fearful sea Vixen Terra Vonnel is on a mission to steal the skulls of Aries.  She must fight Vampires, Death, and deal with pirates, and Dead Souls.  Magic, enchantments, curses, and glowing swords  brings about a thriller fantasy short story.

My Reviews:  I'm not a big fan of 3rd person narrative stories, but in the case of Terra Vonnel and the Skulls of Aries, this works great!  You get all the details and the story, the fear within the mind and soul of the characters.  You feel like you're a part of the pirate crew, without feeling like the danger is upon you.  I like the way this author spins a tale.  The characters in this book aren't as realistic as other stories I've read from this author.  But for a quick read (literally half an hour for anyone), this works.  If the author wishes to continue working on this story, I would highly suggest filling out the characters better.  I would have liked to know the Pirate Vampire Dragos better.  I would like to see more imagery as well.  Over all, it was good, just not great.

Pros: interesting twist of pirates, vampires, and magic

Cons: needs better imagery, and more details with each character

                                                                        My Rating: Thumbs up and down.  Up for the plot, down for the characters.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Haven: A Stranger Magic

Details: The Dalcome family is the normal average family, brother and sister are always fighting each other, single Mother works so much and so hard to give her children what they need and some of what they want.  The son is so average that no one knows him, sees him.  The daughter has a short fuse on her temper, and when she blows abnormal things happen.  Who is the stranger that the son is stalking, and why can the daughter do things that seem like magic?

My Review:  I haven't read short stories in a long time, so to get a group of short stories to read, has been a pleasant change.  The author is talented, because the story line is easy to follow, the characters are from everyone's reality, the magic isn't corny but well written.  To compare this short story, I would have to say that the magic is a mix between Harry Potter and the Spiderwick Chronicles.  The lives of the characters are a mix between Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter, and Narnia series.  I wasn't sure what to expect, and though the short story leaves you hanging.  Meaning that I can't wait to see where this goes.

Pros: great fantasy short story

Cons: none

                                                                                       My Rating 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Ateevia Botanica

Details: Ateevia anti-inflammation cream.  3.0 fl oz bottle, cream is liquidy and thick with a brown in color.  This alleviates arthritic joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, tendonitis, lower back pain, heel pain, sports bruises.  3 step directions, active ingredients are magnesia phosphorica 6x HPUS, and phytolacca decandra succus 6x HPUS.   "Ateevia's Prime is a treatment invented and used successfully by a doctor decades ago.  His grandson, also a doctor, reformulated and refined the treatment to maximize safety and enhance potency.  All Ateevia Botanica products are power packed with vital phytonutrients that remedy, revive and protect the human anatomy."



My Review: When I first saw this product on Tomoson, I thought that this would be another great opportunity to get a product for a comparison review to all the other pain relief creams and ointments we here at Mom's Thumb Reviews have tested, tried, and reviewed all ready.  Showing this product to my Mother In Law, and Aunt, they were both very impressed that there was no to little scent, that it covered so many inflammatory issues that many older people get as they do age.
As I kept this out and about on the counter, or in the bathroom or in my bedroom, I tried to think about how to use this because at the time and even for the first 5 days none of my family had any issues needing to use this product.
But then one night my 3 year old was running around the living room when he slipped on the hard wood floor and slid right into the heavy wooden TV stand right in the corner and started screaming bloody murder.  My Mother In Law and I carried him into the kitchen looked at his foot, (we thought for sure he broke a toe), and carefully put some ice on it.  But after 1-3 minutes he wouldn't keep the ice on, so looking around for something to put on his foot, I saw this Ateevia Botanica on the counter.  I squirted some on my finger to rub on his foot, as we found out he didn't break a toe, but hit the soft fleshy part of his upper foot on the TV stand.   He had a huge black and purple and blue bruise, and a large lump.  He started to freak out when he saw the brown stuff on my finger (he hates all medicine that he has to swallow).  But Mam Ma told him it was honey for his foot and he calmed right down.  I rubbed the cream into his foot, and within 10 minutes the bruise was faded, the lump was gone, and he was down running around again.

The very next day he hit his foot on something else and begged for the honey to be put on his foot. My 3 year old loves this stuff for all his little bruises and such.  I have used this on myself for strained muscles and it worked great.  I'm very impressed with this stuff.  I personally don't like the scent, I can't describe it, but its something that as a child growing up, this smell is very gross to me.  But everyone else likes it, including my Husband who doesn't like anything scented except his cologne.

Pros: works great, works fast, isn't sticky, easy to wash residue off

Cons: I don't like the smell, but I'm the only one who doesn't, its $20 for a 3.0 fl oz tube, but I'm sold on the effectiveness of this product to be willing to pay for this, others with tighter budgets might not be able to afford $20 for a tube like this.

                                                 My Rating

   I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Blaze of Glory

Details:  A broken family is brought together when something  happens to the teenage daughter, and her wonderful horse Blaze.  Learn what happens when major rules are broken on a horse farm, and how these mistakes change the whole life of each individual involved.  Can a teenage romance be more than just a fling?  M. Garzon has wonderful insight and details.  Twin power comes into play as the adopted twin siblings learn to love a hard man who is filled with anger, guilt, and sorrow.  Can their love really soften his heart and bring their family stronger when the time is needed to be strong?  This book is being considered for a TV series and hosted on USA Today's website.

Information:  Okay, so here's my opinion.  I love horse books, and this one was very intriguing.  My instructions: read the prologue, if you are sucked in I highly suggest you buy the book (Kindle or printed versions available).  This was the first Kindle book I've read, and I was able to down load the Kindle app to my computer to read this book.  Its 334 pages long, normally that would take me 3  uninterrupted hours to read.  But this took me 3 days to finish.  I was sucked in, I was over whelmed by the emotions that my body went through as I read, and I'm a much slower reader when its on electronic devices because my eyes get tripped out.  The first half of the novel is all about the horse farm, Tea's goals and hard work to become a champion jumper.  That part was very entertaining, educational to someone who loves horses and has always wished she could own a few one day.

The second half of the book is all about the changes that happen to Tea as she grows up more, finds herself, and follows her heart.  If you read Twilight, you will love this book!  The romance, the conflict and tension of ignoring teenage sexuality are very big in this novel.  The action and adventure were very entertaining!  There is very little language: specifically 3 words used once each.   For something that is new and fresh that is impressive.

My personal disclaimer: I do not support sexuality outside of wedlock especially teenagers messing around with sex. In addition,  I do not support drug usage nor drinking, but did like that the author did put in consequences that were fit for the dangers the teens in this book took when participating in drugs and alcohol.  This book has all of this, if you are uncomfortable reading any material with those in it, then I don't suggest you read it.  Withe the language its mild cursing, which I can over look easier than heavy curse words.

SALE:  the Kindle version of this book is on sale until March 31 2012.  You can buy it straight from this link: 
http://www.mgarzon.ca/buy.html

                                                               My Rating
I give this book a thumbs up for awesome writing skills, fun entertainment, and excitement, and for being able to suck me into the story line within the first 10 pages.  That is a sure sign of a great book.  I give it a thumbs down for the content which I personally don't support, and want viewers to know what they are getting into.  However, if this turns into a series I would want to finish reading the rest of it.

 I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.