From Amazon: After tragedy hits the small coal mining village of Wintermore, nine-year-old miner’s son, George, is sent to Granville Hall to live with his titled grandparents. Caught up in a web of treachery and deceit, George grows up believing his mother sold him. He’s determined to make her pay, but at what cost? Is he strong enough to rebel? Will George ever learn to forgive? Step back into the 60s and follow George as he struggles with bereavement, rejection and a kidnapping that changes his life forever. Resistance is George’s only hope.

My Review: I found The Coal Miner’s Son to be an incredible read and I completely immersed myself into several characters. I don’t like giving away too many events in my reviews, but this books is all about family, the good and the bad. Betrayal happens to George, more than once, and by many people as a child. George suffered a lot, many loses, cruelty, kidnapping, thrust into situations as no child should be, and age age 18, his birthday actually, he told his loved ones that he would make decisions with one of them being therapy due to all the traumas in his life. George was smart and knew what he needed. Reading about him being successful in therapy was the fulfillment of seeing his bright future ahead of him. Five huge stars!!!!!

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From Amazon: Grace wants to become a fashion designer but her titled father is lining up suitable suitors for marriage. How will this end? Grace is about to leave Greenemere, a boarding school in Brighton. Blissfully unaware of her father’s plans, she embarks on a new adventure. The quest includes a trip to Bolton’s Palais where she meets coal miner, Jack Gilmore. Grace’s life is never the same again. Is Grace strong enough to defy Lord Granville’s wishes and find true love? Will she become a successful fashion designer? Where will she turn for help? House of Grace is the first book in the historical fiction family saga trilogy. If you like Mr Selfridge and House of Eliott then you’ll love this riches to rags 1950s/60s saga. Delve into House of Grace and follow Grace Granville as she struggles with family conflict, poverty and tragedy.

My Review: House of Grace is the perfect title for this book. Partway through the story, I had figured out that by the end, what the title meant. That written, never did I figure out any other parts of this story. Love is present in abundance and quite necessary with the myriad of happenings going on. I liked the 60s vibe for sure. This book made me cry in times of loss, and happy in times of good things going on. The Christmases evoked worth and truly, family isn’t always blood. So true. Five stars!

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From Amazon: A perfect gift, a story books for 4-8 years old boys and girls, a wonderful bedtime story for kids, a fun read for grandparents. “The Cheetah and the Dog by Patricia Furstenberg, like her other animal story books, is inspired by the real life story of Kasi the cheetah and Mtani the Labrador dog and their friendship. The story gives insight on the importance of friendship. Kasi and Mtani meet by accident one hot day on Africa’s wild plains. Though they both looked different, they liked to chase each other and hide in the dust. One day while playing, they see a rabbit and they decide to run after the rabbit. Later they realize hunting can become boring and it is best to play and explore. The author discusses the topic of friendship through this story, and tells readers how friendship can be fun and it is not about color, race, caste, and creed.

My Review: I found this illustrated children’s book delightful. One would never imagine a cheetah and a dog being friends, yet they were. They played together and lived near each other. I thought the act of helping friends avoid danger was excellent. As the story unfolds, children learn about many different animals in Africa in nice rhyming manner. Children are made aware of how some animal species are endangered. Five stars.

From Amazon: 2016 Chanticleer Media’s Chatelaine Book Awards Finalist Beautiful, headstrong Marcella Scimenti has the affection of a handsome neighborhood boy, the love of her large Italian family, and serious dreams of singing in Hollywood. But the course of true love—nor the journey to finding one’s true self—never did run smooth. In America follows the story of Marcella, the daughter of the characters at the center of Nina Romano’s continent-spanning Wayfarer Trilogy, as she comes of age in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in the late 1920s. In the trilogy’s heartwarming conclusion, Marcella must learn to balance new friendships, promising suitors, and life as a modern working girl with the expectations of her tradition-bound family, all against the backdrop of a looming economic depression and a changing world. Along the way, she unearths a devastating family secret that shakes her to her core and tests the boundaries of her love, loyalty, and faith.

My Review: What a great book! This story is a romance, but with multiple romances woven in like a silk thread as they blended perfectly together. The story takes place in mainly Brooklyn and Manhattan and is rich in Italian culture. Chinese and other cultures are woven throughout, but Italian is the major focus. I kept waiting for Marcella to make the right choice with Gianni. The passages describing foods and cooking made me think of my own style of cooking and simply knowing what and how much of an ingredient to use without a measuring cup or spoon. That is the mark of a great cook. This story has ties into organized crime and prohibition of time for which it is written. Five gold stars!!!!!