#MMBBR #BlogTourHost @JaimieHope @WWVBT The Lil' Defenders by Jaimie Hope, Jose Julian Ramirez Rivas

Who says kids can't be superheroes? Don't believe it's true? Follow these kids on their first mission, they make a believer out of you too.

Inspired by real life children achieving extraordinary feats using everyday items, their brainpower, and teamwork.

These lil defenders fights for what is right defend the evil in the world. All these kids learn of their powers and use them for good, but the greater message of this book is that we all have super powers and can do things to defend against evil every day to make this world a better place to live for all.  What a great message for kids.  

AUTHOR BIO:

Jaimie Hope was born November 3, 1976, in New York. It wasn’t until high school, where she joined the newspaper staff that she decided she wanted to be a writer. After graduation, the author went to college and received an Associate’s degree in 1999.

In 2002, she moved to Florida where she was an active volunteer in the local historical society and the Deltona Regional Library, this was the turning point for the author. In 2005, she started writing and hasn’t stopped.

In 2006, she moved back to New York where she released her first Children’s book, The Adventures of Baby Jaimie.  As they say, the rest is history. Jaimie Hope now has books in multiple genres. They include Children’s picture books, Young Adult Romance, New Adult Romance, Paranormal Romance, and Non-fiction. 

In 2014, she opened Back To Basics Publishing & Author Services.

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The Lil' Defenders by Jaimie Hope, Jose Julian Ramirez Rivas 

Published by Back to Basics Publishing on May 20th 2016 
Genres: Children's 
Format: mobi, paperback, pdf 

#bestsummerever #SCR2016 #Highlight So Close by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus @BookSparks

Title: So Close
Author: Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
Published: June 2016, Sparkpress
Format: Paperback, 288 pages

From international #1 best-selling authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus comes a story about a girl from the trailer parks of central Florida and the two powerful men who shape her life one of whom will raise her up to places she never imagined, the other of whom will threaten to destroy her.

Amanda Beth Luker has spent her whole life desperately looking for someone who can show her the way out of her trailer park Florida town. And then, finally, help arrives in the form of Tom Davis, a successful lawyer with political aspirations who grew up just a few towns over from Amanda. But it's his wife, Lindsay, who really captures Amanda's imagination. Strong, smart, and determined, she gives Amanda something she's never had: a role model. Meanwhile Amanda is introduced to the wealthy, charismatic, and deeply troubled Pax Westerbrook. He clearly desires Amanda, but if she gives in will that move her closer to the life she's always dreamed of or make it impossible?

Amanda rides Davis's political success all the way to Washington, where he becomes Senator and will later be tapped for president and even make a bid for the White House. But when Amanda starts to suspect, and later confirms, his moral indiscretions, her loyalty is tested. Will a girl from a trailer park even be believed if she goes public with damning information? Will she be willing to risk losing everything she's gained?

PRAISE: 

“The Nanny Diaries’ Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus take on Washington, D.C.” ― Us Weekly, “Best Reads for the Beach” 

“[So Close] speaks to all of the craziness we’re enduring on account of this year’s U.S. presidential election.” ―Redbook Magazine, “21 Books By Women You Have To Read this Summer”

"This political coming-of-age page-turner is a must-have companion for your summer travels.” ―Brit + Co, “20 Hottest Reads to Add to Your Summer Reading List

“[So Close] is a great rags-to-riches story with a sincere, determined protagonist.”―Library Journal

"Guarded, genuine Amanda makes a compelling heroine in McLaughlin and Kraus’s most moving outing yet.” ―Booklist

"This political page-turner will keep you hooked until Scandal is finally back on our screens." ―Bustle

“A skillful follow-up to their juggernaut The Nanny Diaries, So Close is a sharp cultural examination of ambition, politics, and the exhausting climb that can be chasing dreams. Amanda Beth is both a heart-breaking and refreshingly relateable protagonist. Female readers will enjoy smiling and crying with her, as we see Amanda battling the wrong attractions while trying to rise above her life's cruel station. Playfully barbed commentary makes this all the more fun.” ―Colleen Oakes, best-selling author of the Elly series, The Queen of Hearts series, and the Wendy Darling series

“Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus have created a fascinating world with a relatable, ambitious protagonist you can’t help but root for. So Close is a must-read if you’ve ever wondered what it takes for a politician to be elected." ―Lisa Henthorn, author of 25 Sense, and television writer of Swingtown, The Beautiful Life, and The Glades

"Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus have done it again. So Close is a page turner about loyalty, love, ambition, family, and friendship. Amanda is a strong and vibrant character who stays with you long past the last page.” ―Susie Schnall, author of The Balance Project and On Grace

“Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus deliver an engaging story of a young woman determined to change her trajectory. So Close is about love, loss, and the choices one makes on the road to success. This is an endearing read that makes you want to root for the underdog.” ―Nicole Meier, author of The House of Bradbury
 

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@Influenster @InfluensterVox @OleHenriksen #OleGold #Review OleHenriksen PowerBright #voxbox

MY REVIEW:

I am in love with this system.  It is easy to do, smells great, makes my skin feel smooth and soft and does not clog my pores.  It is an anti-aging with glow, pretty awesome right. I was surprised that after just one use that I could feel the difference in my skin.  Then you add in the Sheer Transformation lotion and the Truth Serum Collegen Booster to the mix and it hits it out of the park.  This is an amazing system that helps with anti-aging and does not cause break outs.  It is a true blessing to skin care.    

NOTE:  I received this product free from OleHenriksen for the purpose of my personal and unbiased review. 

#MMBBR Product Review: Emtage Beauty @EmtageBeauty

About the Product

• 100% PURE, ORGANIC Skin Oil Serum with Organic Argan and Rosehip Oil, Geranium - No preservatives, Chemicals, Parabens, Artificial Fragrances, Gluten Free, Cruelty Free, Vegan, Non GMO. USDA Certified Organic Ingredients. Made in the USA
• Roll-on Argan Rosehip oil serum every day on face and neck as a day and night time moisturizer
• BEST FOR nourishing and hydrating dry skin, improving appearance of fine lines, wrinkles to fading discoloration and scars, brightens skin tone. Convenient roll-on bottle. No oil spilling. Perfect for travel.
• Metal rollerball to increase skin circulation, collagen production and relieve under eye puffiness.
• Our Argan oil is organic, cold pressed virgin, expeller pressed, hexane free, sustainably harvested and imported from Morocco. 

MY REVIEW:

I have been using this for a few weeks now and I am in love.  I have been using on my lips and they are so much smoother.  I can feel and see improvement and that makes me so very happy.  I also have been using it around my eyes.  They look so much brighter and smoother.  I love that it smells so good and can easily fit in my purse or makeup bag so I can always have it with me.  It was easy to add this into my regiment.  This product has so many uses that I feel anyone can find a reason to use it and find a way to make them look and feel better.  Plus, it is made with pure ingredients, which makes me feel better about using it!!!  5 stars

About the Product

• 100% PURE, ORGANIC Skin Oil Serum with Organic Argan and Rosehip Oil, Geranium - No preservatives, Chemicals, Parabens, Artificial Fragrances, Gluten Free, Cruelty Free, Vegan, Non GMO. USDA Certified Organic Ingredients. Made in the USA
• Roll-on Argan Rosehip oil serum every day on face and neck as a day and night time moisturizer
• BEST FOR nourishing and hydrating dry skin, improving appearance of fine lines, wrinkles to fading discoloration and scars, brightens skin tone. Convenient roll-on bottle. No oil spilling. Perfect for travel.
• Metal rollerball to increase skin circulation, collagen production and relieve under eye puffiness.
• Our Argan oil is organic, cold pressed virgin, expeller pressed, hexane free, sustainably harvested and imported from Morocco.

MY REVIEW:

I love this product so much.  I have been using it for a few weeks.  I use it on my eyebrows, lashes, hair and nails.  My tips, nails, lashes and brows are so much smoother and hydrated. It also smells great.  I love that I can easily add this awesome rollerball into my daily regiment.  I love that it can fit in my purse or makeup bag and take it with me, so there is no reason not to use it.  This product is so versatile that I feel anyone can find a reason to use it and find a way to make them look and feel better.  Plus, it is made with pure ingredients, which makes me feel better about using it!!!  5 stars

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#MMBBR #HIGHLIGHT Disappearance at Devil's Rock by @paulGtremblay @HarperCollins

A family is shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in this eerie tale, a blend of literary fiction, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror from the author of A Head Full of Ghosts.

“A Head Full of Ghosts scared the living hell out of me, and I’m pretty hard to scare,” raved Stephen King about Paul Tremblay’s previous novel. Now, Tremblay returns with another disturbing tale sure to unsettle readers.

Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her thirteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.

The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy’s disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: the local and state police have uncovered no leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he vanished, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock.

Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connects them.

As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened become more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

Paul Tremblay is the author of A Head Full of Ghosts (William Morrow), coming June 2, 2015. He's also the author of the novels The Little Sleep (Henry Holt), No Sleep till Wonderland (Henry Holt), Swallowing a Donkey's Eye (CZP), and Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly (co-written with Stephen Graham Jones).

He is the author of the short story collection IN THE MEAN TIME (CZP). His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous "year's best" anthologies. He is the co-editor of four anthologies including CREATURES: Thirty Years of Monster Stories (with John Langan). Paul is the president of the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts, has a master's degree in Mathematics, and has no uvula. You can find him online at www.paultremblay.net.

Paul is very truthful and declarative in his bios. He once gained three inches of height in a single twelve hour period, and he does not have a uvula. He has a master's degree in mathematics, teaches AP Calculus, and once made twenty-seven three pointers in a row. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts and he is represented by Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.

#MMBBR #BooknerdBoyBraden #Review Bruce and the Road to Justice by @galeleach

Bruce and the Road to Justice (The Adventures of Bruce and Friends Book 3) Kindle Edition

by Gale Leach 

Stang is back and looking for revenge after Bruce and the others nearly killed him and destroyed his empire. But when Stang captures Milton and hurts his other friends, Bruce vows that Stang's evil deeds must end. All Bruce has to do is stay alive long enough to save his friends and exact his own measure of justice. But when he is forced to travel the last of his journey alone, Bruce realizes this might not be so easy after all.

When Gale Leach moved to Arizona, she fell in love with pickleball, a wonderful sport with a silly name. Her first book, The Art of Pickleball, won the Arizona Book Award in 2007. This success spurred her to try fiction, a lifelong dream, and in 2010 she finished her first novel, Bruce and the Road to Courage, a heroic fantasy for children. She followed that with three more books in the "Bruce and Friends" series, all of which captured multiple awards. She's currently writing a new YA series, the first novel of which should be released by the end of 2015.

Writing fiction is now Gale's passion, along with playing Celtic music, singing, and pickleball. She lives in Arizona with her husband, two dogs, and three cats.

Visit Gale's website -- www.galeleach.com -- to learn more about her what she's up to now, read and subscribe to her blog. You may also find her on Facebook and Twitter

I really liked this book.  I feel now that I have read three in the series that I really know these characters.  I feel like I am in this journey with them.  I feel like Mrs. Leach has done a great job building a relationship between the characters and her readers.  There is so much to love in these books...I am excited, surprised, and really enjoy reading these stories.

#MMBBR #Highlight The Lost Dreamstone Kindle Edition by Gary Val Tenuta @EzekielCode

A TALE OF TWO TALES:

The Story Behind the Story of The Lost Dreamstone -

A Middle-Grade Adventure Fantasy

37 years in the Making

By Gary Val Tenuta

The Lost Dreamstone was completed in 2016 but I actually began writing it in 1979 when my son, Gabriel, was just a year old. So why did it take that long to finish it? I mean, come on. It’s only about 150 pages. How in the world could it take 37 years to write 150 pages? It’s not exactly War and Peace, right? Well, the answer is a story in itself, a story full of odd coincidences, a tale of two tales, if you will. Here’s what happened:

My goal, when I first conceived the basic idea for the story, was to someday see it on the “big screen” as a full-length animated movie. Ideally, I wanted the remarkable fantasy artist, Brian Froud (http://www.worldoffroud.com/about/articles/artofbf.php) to be the art director and to design the characters featured in the story. Yes, it was an ambitious dream but I was quite a dreamer.

About half way into the writing of the story, I decided to send queries and chapter excerpts to publishers, naively hoping maybe I could get an advance to finish the book. Like I said, I was quite a dreamer. I was also young and inexperienced and I didn’t know anything about the real world of publishing. Still, I carried on with my plan.

The first query went to Harper & Row Publishing in New York. Several months later, I received their rejection letter. It was a standard “Thanks, but no thanks,” and I still have that letter tucked away in a dusty old folder.
That rejection slowed me down a little but I worked on it now and then anyway, still thinking it was a good story even if Harper & Row wasn’t interested. 

Then along came a full-length animated film called The Dark Crystal by Jim Hensen of Muppets fame. Not only was the story uncomfortably similar to my Dreamstone (both feature gems of crystal that need to be restored/recovered in order to fix the situation in their respective worlds) but the art direction of Dark Crystal was based on the work of––are you ready for this?––Brian Froud! I know, right? Unbelievable.

So then I thought, why continue with The Dreamstone (that was the working title at the time) because every publisher was surely bound to dismiss it as an obvious Dark Crystal rip-off. So I let the story sit, unfinished, for years.

Then, some twenty years later, I dug out the partially finished manuscript and decided to give it another go. A bit more sophisticated about writing at that point, I realized the proposed ending for the story was completely unsatisfactory. It just would not do. Not no way. Not no how. But that presented a problem. I couldn’t figure out a way to remedy the situation. I puzzled over it now and then for many months but simply could not come up with a solution. Then, a couple years ago, it hit me. With just a slight revision in the plot I was able to see how a satisfactory ending could be achieved. Yaaay! I was really excited to get to work on the story and finish it at long last.

I told my friend, Julie, about it and, knowing about the past situation with Dark Crystal (not to mention a similar situation that happened with a song I wrote) she suggested maybe I should Google the word "Dreamstone" to see if anyone else had used it. I laughed. Impossible. I made up the word. Right? But was I in for a shock. A Google search turned up the following Wikipedia entry:

The Dreamstone was a British animated television series that ran for four series of 13 episodes between 1990 and 1995.

And, as if that wasn’t enough to knock my socks off, compare the following. 
From my personal sketch notes for my story:

The World of Dreams is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. The Kingdom of Light is ruled by the Old One, the Dream Master. The Kingdom of Darkness is ruled by the Sender of Nightmares.

Compare that with this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

The Dreamstone was set in a fantasy alternative world […] and concerned itself principally with the struggle between good (personified by The Dreammaker […] and evil personified by Zordrak, Lord of Nightmares.

Quite a coincidence. Could there be more? Oh, yes.

From my personal sketch notes about my story:

D’rath Kahn has grown bored with people having nightmares so infrequently so he has sent one of his Dreamons to steal the Dreamstone and bring it to him. Once the Dreamstone is in his possession, it will cause more and more people to begin suffering from nightmares every night. If the situation is not remedied then this will become a pandemic and soon no one will ever have a good dream or a good night’s sleep ever again.

Compare that to this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

Zordrak would instruct his henchmen to steal the Dreamstone, which he planned to destroy, so that nightmares would plague the sleeping world.

But wait. There’s more.

From my personal sketch notes about my story:

Separating these two kingdoms there is a very strange and very gray realm known simply as In Between. In the realm of In Between everything seems vague, hazy and undefined.

Compare that with this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

Sergeant Blob, an archetypal Sergeant Major type - would cross the mist of Limbo (a vast Purple Mist) to get to the Land of Dreams.

All of this was disturbing enough to make me wonder if somehow the creators of this British animated series had come across my story and basically ripped me off. But then I thought, no. After all, I began writing my story way back in 1979. This British story wasn't aired on TV until 1990. It was such a long span of time between the two that it must just be a coincidence. It was then that I noticed, in small print at the top of the Wikipedia page, a link to something called the Ealdwood Stories from which The Dreamstone was apparently adapted for television.

So I clicked the link and it took me to another Wikipedia page where the “coincidence” became even more incredible.

It involved an author by the name of C. J. Cherryh who wrote a collection of fantasy stories under the title, The Ealdwood Stories. Given the fact that I began writing my story, The Dreamstone , in 1979 and given the fact that it was in that same year that I sent my query and chapter excerpts to Harper & Row Publishers, the real topper to this strange series of "coincidences" was this quote from that Wikipedia page:

Cherryh first introduced readers to the world of Ealdwood in 1979 with her short story, The Dreamstone.

As you might imagine, that sat me straight up in my chair.

Cherryh’s novel, based on her short story (The Dreamstone) went on to win a number of prestigious awards.
Now of course I had to once again consider the possibility that I'd been ripped off. When I sent my query and chapter excerpts to Harper & Row in 1979, did they recognize the potential of the basic storyline but––realizing I was an unknown writer with no sales track record to assure a return on their investment––they passed the idea on to Cherryh who did have a track record of successful book sales?

Man, talk about a conspiracy theory! I supposed it was possible but, upon further research, I could find no link between Harper & Row and DAW Books, the publisher of Cherryh's work. It didn't make sense that Harper would turn over a good story idea to a competitor. So that pretty much shot a hole in my crazy conspiracy theory. It was all just a string of odd coincidences. But the odd coincidences didn’t stop there. In fact, they got even stranger.

As readers of my story will discover, the item known as the Dreamstone (visualized as similar to a crystal ball) sits atop a statue of three fairy figures on a pedestal about 3 feet tall. The fairy figures are standing with their arms upstretched with their hands open in such a way as to accommodate the round crystal Dreamstone. This brings us to perhaps the strangest of all the odd coincidences.

Sometime––I think it was in the mid-1990s––I attended a kind of New Age expo, a big annual event in Seattle in which, among other things, artisans displayed their works for sale.

As I was browsing amongst the hundreds of vendor displays, my attention was drawn to something very familiar across the room. It was, unbelievably, a 3-foot tall, ivory-colored statue of three fairy figures with their arms upstretched and their hands opened in such a way that they could hold a round object. The round object, however, was missing. What a coincidence! If you’re shaking your head right now and thinking this is too much, it can’t possibly be true, imagine what I was thinking!

I made my way over to the display and inquired about the piece. The person managing the booth was not the artist but I learned it belonged to a fellow whose name I was not only familiar with because of the bizarre conspiracy books he’d published, but also because his first name, Val, is my middle name. I also learned he lived in my home state of Washington although on the opposite side of the Cascade mountain range that separates Western Washington, where I live, from Eastern Washington where he lives. Crazy, right? 

In any case, my book remained unfinished for several more years. In the meantime, I wrote two other novels and a series of novellas all of which are in the paranormal genre and geared toward adult readers. Then, sometime around 2014, I decided it was time to buckle down and finish writing The Dreamstone although, by now, I had decided to rename it and it became The Lost Dreamstone.

There was just one thing missing. There was no Brian Froud to create the illustrations for the book. So, since I’m also an illustrator, I employed myself for the task. That turned out to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the entire creative process.

So here we are in 2016 and the book I started to write when my son was just a year old will now be read by him to his own son, Vincent. Of course Vincent just turned three this year so it will be a few more years before he’s ready for it. But, when he is ready, it’ll be there waiting for him. And that’s no coincidence.

If you happen to read The Lost Dreamstone, please consider leaving a review on amazon.com. Getting noticed among all the gazillions of books available on amazon is insanely difficult. Reviews are tremendously helpful in that regard. So, if you do leave a review, let me say here and now: THANK YOU!

May all your best dreams come true.

Oh, and watch out for the weedles.
(That’ll make sense to those of you who read the book.)

Kindle - U.S. • $1.99 (for a limited time) • https://amzn.com/B01F7EQGQU
Kindle - U.K. • £1.49 • (for a limited time) http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F7EQGQU