A winning read! "AMBUSH OF THE HEART (Rocky Mountain Marshals #1)" book giveaway

 

When bandits strike in the wilderness, can love and faith overcome the shadows of danger?

As Owen Riley and his fellow Marshals escort Delaney Bridger, her brother, and an escaped prisoner to Fort Russell, a gang of outlaws ambushes them, bringing death and devastation to their party. With their lives on the line and the outlaws in pursuit, Owen directs the rest of his battered group to seek hiding at a remote ranch.

After the attack leaves her brother Boone seriously injured, Delaney helps Owen, nursing Boone and a wounded Marshal back to health while danger looms ever closer. Despite the threat at their heels, romance sparks between Owen and Delaney as they fight for survival on their perilous trek to the fort. Can they overcome the obstacles and find a future together?

Mary Connealy presents a riveting historical Frontier series starter of adventure, love, and high jinks in the rugged wilderness of 1870s Colorado. This Western romance features a determined Marshal, a courageous woman, forced proximity romance, and a risky journey of survival.

Read an excerpt - click here

GIVEAWAY

Begins January 18

Ends February 18 @ 11:59 p.m. ET

Open to USA addresses only.

AMBUSH OF THE HEART (Rocky Mountain Marshalls#1) by Mary Connealy

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given. Winner's copy is provided by author or publisher. Chat With Vera is not responsible for lost or misdirected prizes. #MaryConnealy #BethanyHouse Order a copy at: BakerBookHouse.com

A Book of Maps for You by Lourdes Heuer & illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III

ISBN: 9780823455706
Hardcover $18.99
Neal Porter Books
Holiday House Publishing

My thoughts:  Imagine an elementary age child fully aware of the world around him down to the most minute detail mapping out that world so someone can learn about it. A map of the house that details that bathroom faucet that trickles and the pipe that sounds like a ghost. Details of the street and the houses and who lives in them. A set of details about the neighbor whose yard is called "The Farm" and sketched out are the details of that neighbors "farm yard."

And then imagine the reason behind this treasure of detail. The artist or author of these maps is leaving this world so fully detailed in maps and left the guide for you to see and discover his beloved world because his family is moving away.

A sweet book and lots of details for the interested reader to discover.

About the book: Before moving away, a young cartographer leaves some guidance behind about his old home for the child about to make it their new one.

What if you moved to a new place and found a hand-drawn local guidebook, left there just for you? In A Book of Maps for You, an artistic young person gives just such a gift. He’s crafted and annotated maps of his neighborhood, school, and house; no slide, orange tree, or chicken coop left uncharted.

He points out the best Halloween decorations, school lunches, and local stops for baked goods, books, or art supplies. He shows the best place to put your bed upstairs, right under the skylight. Just as his family’s moving truck pulls away, another pulls up, and sure enough, his book finds its way into the next child’s hands.   

During a big move, a child can feel a lot of pressure to open their heart to the place they’re headed. But what about the roads they’ve been down hundreds of times? The faces they’ve grown up seeing? The house where they know every bang of the pipes and drip of the faucet? That history deserves care, too.
A Book of Maps for You honors the homes we leave behind and the ones we haven’t met yet, reminding us that they may just be two sides of the same coin. Lourdes Heuer’s achingly subtle text speaks volumes in all it pays attention to, and all it doesn’t have to say. Maxwell Eaton III’s signature detail-rich illustrations perfectly suggest the work of a talented child, and promise plenty of surprises to drink in and explore on each page.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.

The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape by Amy Alznauer & illustrated by Anna Bron

 The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape by Amy Alznauer & illustrated by Anna Bron 

"Writing with a storyteller’s flair, Alznauer captures her audience’s attention with colorful phrases and interesting facts." —Booklist (starred review)

My thoughts:  I love children's picture book biographies as they provide a lovely introduction to children of reading about people who have actually lived and done wonderous things during the lives they lived. Their creativity, their inventiveness, their intelligence, their perseverance. All qualities we want our children to learn and emulate. So reading about Marjorie Rice and her fascination with shapes, is another delightful opportunity to learn about a little known person of real interest.

Geometrical shapes and the math that comes with them elude me personally, and I'm not convinced that Marjorie Rice had any math skills to associate with her fascination with shapes. puzzle tiles, and interconnecting shapes without gaps. But she was drawn to shapes with five sides. This is a bit unusual since Marjorie was a very ordinary woman living a very ordinary life as a wife, housekeeper, and mother of five children. Simply going about her daily life alone is enough to boggle the mind, weary the soul, and tire the body. Perhaps Marjorie's fascination with the elusive five sided shape and tesselation provided a subconscious escape mechanism or distration. Or perhaps she was pure genius. 

I think the book is artistically beautiful, engagin, gand beautifully laid out. The story telling is superb. The ability to understand the concept of polygons and tesselating shapes makes the book upper elementary reading for an audience.

I see this as a terrific book for a library and a terrific book for families that dwell in mathematical mindfulness. I think as a story about an ordinary mother, wife, housewife who thought in unusual areas of math or science while living a busy, hectic, ordinary life it has tremendous value. The story ends with Marjorie being given recognition for her achievements by receiving appreciative accolades at a convention of mathematicians. 

About the book: Ablaze with pattern and color, this ebullient picture book biography celebrates the intersection of art and science—through the life and lens of an extraordinary amateur mathematician.

My Review: LOVE ON THE HORIZON (Horizons Series #4) by Penny Zeller

My review: As with Penny Zeller's other books, Love on the Horizon is squeaky clean and faith filled. In the story we see a hurt, emotionally vulnerable young woman trying to leave town to go someplace, anyplace, where she can start a new life. The trouble is, she has no funds. So we commence this journey with Meg as she cons and beguiles her way on a tumultuous train and stage coach ride toward the West and ends in Horizon, Idaho.

Having learned as a child that truth is always best, her deceptions begin to become worrisome to her as truth nudges her conscious. When she does settle in the little town of Horizon, Idaho, good deeds toward her and friendships extended to her smooth the path for her to become the settled person she wants to be.

In the book we meet a delightfully playful dog, a boy that charms his way into your heart, and the hero of the hour - Timothy.

I highly recommend this and other books by Penny Zeller. Books you can share with the teen in your life or your grandmother. Books that have enough of God's Word in them to enrich your life and yet are not "preachy." Books that are a joy to read.

About the book: A fresh start. An unexpected chance at love.

Magnolia “Mags” Davenport has not had an easy life. Determined to leave behind painful memories, she decides, on a whim, to move halfway across the country to Horizon, Idaho, a town she's never before heard of. What should be a simple escape to a new life turns into an adventure she never imagined. From dangerous train rides to a stagecoach robbery, Mags wonders if she'll ever reach her destination. When she finally sets foot in the small town filled with friendly people and a slightly aggravating, but kind and handsome man who needs spectacles, will she find the new beginning her heart craves?

Four things matter most in Timothy Shepherdson's life—faith, family, farming, and food. Content as a farmer and uncle to his passel of nieces and nephews, Timothy isn't interested in courtship or romance, especially since none of the women with their caps set for him can cook. What should be a simple trip into town changes everything after a case of mistaken identity. Timothy finds himself not only under the ire of newcomer Magnolia Davenport, but immensely intrigued when he learns she's opening a bakery. Can he convince the wary baker to both forgive and give him a second chance?

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.

Books to occupy the kids while traveling or just fun anytime - a rhyming book and a fantastic Quentin Blake book

Quentin Blake's Fantastic Journeys by Quentin Blake (Author, Illustrator)

ISBN: 9781536245080
Candlewick Studio $19.99 US

My thoughts:  What's not to love about a Quentin Blake book. His sketch type illustrations are so much fun and packed with such whimsy that they draw children and adults into imaginative persual and fantasy of their own as they explore the minute details.

In Fantastic Journeys Quentin Blake uses pen and washes of black, grey, and browns to ink out his illustrations that tenderly and with much fun jolt the imagination.

About the book: Savor the work of the well-loved and lauded illustrator Quentin Blake in this keepsake collection of fun, quirky drawings that will delight both longtime devotees and emerging young fans.

A chef in mid-fall, balancing a towering, toppling cake. A bespectacled gentleman riding a multi-wheeled bike, with a man on his back juggling eggs. Known for their whimsy and wit and uncanny ability to convey worlds of expression with only the scantest of line, Quentin Blake’s illustrations have long been linked to the work of storytellers such as Roald Dahl, but in this book they shine on their own. Originally self-published in a series of slim titles dubbed the QB Papers—collections of drawings, varied in tone and approach, evoking journeys both real and imaginary—the images in Quentin Blake’s Fantastic Journeys fall under titles such as “Trip Hazards,” “Feet in the Water,” and “Ten Things You Cannot Really Manage Without.” Curated both for maximum child-friendliness and for the shelves of art-book collectors, this beauty of a gift book is a sheer pleasure, guaranteed to invite many a revisit.

Five Little Friends: A Collection of Finger Rhymes by Sean Taylor & illustrated by Fiona Woodcock 

ISBN: 9781536242911
Candlewick Press $19.99 US

My thoughts:  This is a sweet, cheerfully illustrated collection of actions and rhymes for little ones. I can see it with teachers or parents leading little ones in the action rhymes using their fingers, hands, and arms to act out the rhyme. 

A well done accumulation of sweet words and fun activities.

About the book: "This inspired offering will ensure hours of enlightening fun...A fresh, wonderfully creative, and visually engaging array of rhymes to get kids moving." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Playful, interactive, and full of whimsy, Sean Taylor’s collection of poems invites little ones to get their fingers, hands, and wiggles ready.

One little friend

in the playground . . . sliding.

Two little friends

playing chase and . . . hiding.

What better way to get little ones excited about poems than to make them part of the delivery? In the hallowed tradition of nursery rhymes and songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” this imaginative collection entices children to use their fingers, hands, and sometimes whole bodies to bring a variety of verses to life. Whether the subject is sailing ships or stomping dinosaurs, falling snow or popping bubbles, jumping onto waterslides or riding a crowded elevator, Sean Taylor’s rhythmic read-aloud verses pair with Fiona Woodcock’s fresh, colorful illustrations, offering clues to the finger actions kids can follow—unless they’re happily acting things out already, using shapes and movements all their own.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.

How Mary Connealy got the idea for new book "Ambush of the Heart (Rocky Mountain Marshals #1)" & a giveaway to enter

Here's a little about author Mary Connealy, and what drives her to write and where her ideas originate.... 

The start and the writing of Ambush of the Heart....

I took a train ride…about a year before I started Rocky Mountain Marshals. Mainly because I’d always kind of wanted to, but also in an effort to see wild land. The land I wrote about all the time. Land you can’t see from a plane.

I rode that train from Denver to San Francisco. I’m glad I did it. Not because I discovered I love train travel, quite the opposite. Thirty hour trip, not one second of sleep. Mild motion sickness through-out.

The reason I’m glad I did it is because, I always wanted to do it and now I don’t anymore.

What else could that work with? Hmmm…

Anyway, the great thing was seeing the mountains. The pass we rode over the Sierra Nevada Mountains on (hello…Donner Party anyone?) And the pass we rode through just west of Denver when we really cruised along some staggeringly beautiful mountains.

The thing that struck me was…this huge, steep slopes that seemed to reach up to the sky and my mind thinks, nothing up there but peaks…and then, because I have a weird writer’s brain, I thought…what if there’s more? What’s really beyond those peaks?

Add in something someone who lives near the Grand Canyon once told me…there are several well known trails to the bottom…but there are unknown trails. Trails that might take some climbing, trails horses can move over but no person would even see those trails if they didn’t watch a horse or a deer or an elk bound down and up in unlikely places.

My story was born.

I Imagined riders—US Marshals and a few others…including my heroine of course—going up that impossibly steep slope (hey, it’s not like it was a straight cliff or anything!!! It could happen!!!) When they get to the top…there’s more. There’s a hard, brutal, path forward. One of the marshals knows part of the way…but wow, is it ever rugged. And if you think my marshals get lost…well, it’s even worse than that. They get separated and separately lost.

That running fight with men trying to break the prisoner they were transporting free, leads them straight into the wild. With trouble coming hard behind them, and trackless wilderness in front of them, they need to get back to civilization. [©Mary Connealy]

Now that Mary's tickled your imagination with train rides, rugged mountain peaks, and the good guys (US Marshals) chasing the bad guys, you can dive into the full-blown story - Ambush of the Heart! Releases in early February and the title's first word, Ambush, carries with it excitement, fear, intrigue, and a hope for a hero.

🐎~🚂~⛰️~🐎~🚂~⛰️

ISBN: 9780764245992
Bethany House Publishing
Order: Baker Book House

When bandits strike in the wilderness, can love and faith overcome the shadows of danger?

As Owen Riley and his fellow Marshals escort Delaney Bridger, her brother, and an escaped prisoner to Fort Russell, a gang of outlaws ambushes them, bringing death and devastation to their party. With their lives on the line and the outlaws in pursuit, Owen directs the rest of his battered group to seek hiding at a remote ranch.

After the attack leaves her brother Boone seriously injured, Delaney helps Owen, nursing Boone and a wounded Marshal back to health while danger looms ever closer. Despite the threat at their heels, romance sparks between Owen and Delaney as they fight for survival on their perilous trek to the fort. Can they overcome the obstacles and find a future together?

Mary Connealy presents a riveting historical Frontier series starter of adventure, love, and high jinks in the rugged wilderness of 1870s Colorado. This Western romance features a determined Marshal, a courageous woman, forced proximity romance, and a risky journey of survival.

Read an excerpt - click here

GIVEAWAY

Begins January 18

Ends February 18 @ 11:59 p.m. ET

Open to USA addresses only.

AMBUSH OF THE HEART (Rocky Mountain Marshalls#1) by Mary Connealy

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given. Winner's copy is provided by author or publisher. Chat With Vera is not responsible for lost or misdirected prizes. #MaryConnealy #BethanyHouse Order a copy at: BakerBookHouse.com

From Kregel Children's Books: "My Bigger Search and Find Noah's Ark" by Jacob Vium-Olesen [Review & Giveaway]

ISBN: 9780825452093
Board Book $12.99
Kregel Children's Books

My thoughts: I have found that the children's books published by Kregel Publications have never disappointed me. The delightful illustrations, engaging story-telling, the educational and involvement-based format plus sturdy binding and pages make these worthwhile and choice acquisitions for the young child's use and enjoyment. 

In My Bigger Search and Find Noah's Ark the Old Testament story of Biblical patriarch Noah building the Ark to house two of every kind of creature (more of some), the delightful imagination of author, illustrator, and publisher have all designed a rather unique book. The "bigger" part is that when you turn the page, you don't get a two-page-spread. No, you get a 4-square. It unfolds (or expands) into a big page with lots of items to engage the vision and attention of the young child. The child can further engage in the story by finding items as they appear in unexpected places on the page.

Each spread is different and the focus is on BIGGER. So not only are the pages of the book bigger than expected, the child will learn that

• Noah's task was bigger
• The boat was bigger
• The flood was bigger
• Their trust in God was bigger
• God's rainbow promise was bigger

So not only is this a cute, fun, interactive book, it is also introductory theology for the little ones in your family. And...... mom and dad can learn just how big it all was, too.

I highly recommend this book. Remember to enter the giveaway below.....

About the book: Seek-and-find books are fun, but what if they were . . . bigger? This one unfolds to four times its original size to make for an interactive experience kids will love.

Children ages four to six will discover the story of Noah's ark while spotting hidden characters, animals, and objects on every colorful and jam-packed page. Kids will also learn how to apply the Scripture to their lives. Each page includes verse references as well as truths about God's love and care for little readers to remember.

A perfect road-trip companion, church-service entertainment, or everyday activity that will keep children engaged while teaching them God's Word and the truth about their importance as His children.

Author: Jacob Vium-Olesen is the CEO of Scandinavia Publishing House and has authored several children's books, including My First Memory Verse Bible and Good Night God.

Take a peek with Granny Godley ~ Sound on!

⛈️🌈GIVEAWAY🌈⛈️

Begins January 17

Ends February 16 @ 11:59 p.m. EST

Open to USA addresses only.

My Bigger Search & Find Noah's Ark by Jacob Vium-Olesen - Kregel Children's Books

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given. Winner's prize copy is provided and sent directly to the winner by Kregel. Chat With Vera is not responsible for lost or misdirected prizes.