Kingdom of Sea and Stone by Mara Rutherford

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Characters with strength and integrity!

Zadie and Nor row home and surprise their parents. Talin arrives and the three of them leave on his small ship but see Ceren’s soldiers attack their home as they’re sailing away. Nor seems unsure about the future she wants and when Talin mentions staying together, she panics inside. They travel to Galeth to look for Sami and ask the people for support against Ceren. They make a discovery about the bloodstones and how Ceren uses them to manipulate and control his soldiers. Talin’s four year old sister is queen as the next female heir. Since she’s too young, their mother is representing in her stead. She’s going to war with Ceren and his bloodstone soldiers but she’s using every citizen who’s twelve and older in her army. Nor faces Ceren, trying to talk sense and logic to him. All he wants is power and control no matter how kind and longing for love he might have been when Nor sees a younger Ceren in her visions. He’s a lost soul. This second and last book in the duology finishes the story up nicely with strong characters full of integrity and loyalty, 5 stars!

CRISPR: A Powerful Way to Change DNA by Yolanda Ridge, illustrations by Alex Boersma

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CRISPR stands for Clustered Regular Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Gene and genetics research are complicated and already have a history of positive and negative results. The decisions of choosing whether or not to modify or enhance genes vary by subject, disease, and creature. Controversial and also exciting, this research and what’s become of it is amazing. I’m not a science buff but I enjoyed reading this informational book because everything is broken down into understandable bits. The illustrations helped immensely also. The big questions of, should we or shouldn’t we? arise with every aspect of gene research. How far should it be taken and what effects will the research, and acting on it, have on the world. Fascinating and frightening all at the same time, 5 stars!

The Naturally Clean Home by Karyn Siegel-Maier

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This all-encompassing cleaning book guides cleaners through home, yard, and vehicle cleaning how-to’s, recipes and tips! Ways to rid your space of pesky insects are also included. A truly essential cleaning guide, 5 stars!

A Guide to Happiness by Tara Ward

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A Guide to Happiness by Tara Ward.
This quick guide offers helpful tips and information on using mindfulness and meditation. Seven steps build a way for making happiness a regular and natural part of our lives. The chemistry of our emotions and hormones is explained easily and concisely to help readers understand how and why we feel the way we do, depending on the situation. Several meditation exercises are placed throughout this guide. One of my favorites is the happiness cloud. The book closes with the Happiness Plan which involves questions and exercises to help gear our minds to daily happiness. A fun guide to happiness!

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas.

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The new series, by Sarah J. Maas, opens with House of Earth and Blood which involves Bryce, half-fae/half-human and her world. The cover is beautifully complex!
In the beginning of the book, Bryce is trying to calm her wolf friend because of an injustice occurring, which let a criminal receive freedom. Bryce goes on a date with her human boyfriend and he ignores her the entire time, so she dumps him and leaves to party at a club with her friends. As Bryce returns home, she can tell something is off, even though she’s wasted. Once she reaches her apartment she finds her best friend and roommate, Danika, slaughtered, as well as the rest of Danika’s wolf pack. Briggs, the criminal that had been set free, is arrested for the murders because of evidence and motive. Two years later, the same type of murder takes place while Briggs is still in prison. Bryce is assigned to work with the police to help find the murderer. She reluctantly and grudgingly let’s them follow her around for her protection and she spends more time and energy being annoying, rude and wasting the police’s time when all she needs to do is give them a list of Danika’s whereabouts and who she spent the last week of her life around. This makes Bryce seem like a completely selfish brat. While she seemed to be wasting time, she was actually gathering information to share with the Angel protecting her. Eventually Bryce and Hunt, the Angel guard, work together and try to find answers to several mysteries, not just Danika’s death. They also become friends and more to each other. Things take a turn for the worst and Hunt feels like he will be a slave forever. Twists and surprises abound and make this first book in the Crescent City a great start to a promising new series, 5 stars!

I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick

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Impressive mystery!
Thanks to NetGalley and Margaret McElderry Books for the opportunity to read and review I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick!
The book begins in August as Anna is being questioned by the police about Zoe Spanos, a young woman who has been missing for two months and looks similar to Anna. Then, the story moves back to June when Anna starts her nanny job. Little by little, Anna meets members of the community and gets to know the neighborhood. The story of Anna alternates with the local podcast, Missing Zoe, created by a Spanos family friend. The podcast explores the investigation into Zoe and her disappearance. The story keeps moving between June when Anna started her job as a nanny in Herron Mills and August when she was arrested for the manslaughter of Zoe. People tend to act strangely around Anna and she starts to wonder why. She knows it’s not just from how she looks. The mystery and questions about Zoe’s disappearance build ominously until the very end of the book. Complicated and fascinating in each part and with all of the characters, I Killed Zoe Spanos weaves a complex, twisty mystery that’s worth a full 5 stars!

A Many Feathered Thing by Lisa Gerlits

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Heartwarming!
Thanks to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read and review A Many Feathered Thing by Lisa Gerlits!
This book tells a story about Clara and how she found her “voice”, gained confidence and built her self esteem. Clara continued to have ear infections when she was a baby and a toddler. When she was two, her parents realized she was having hearing problems, surgery helped with her hearing but she struggled to learn speech and lost confidence because of teasing from others and the frustration of trying to get the sounds right. Clara is reading The Diary of Anne Frank with her class at school. As she learns about Anne and her life, Clara sees parallels of Anne’s experiences and feelings in people she knows and associates with. This healing story inspired me to sketch again and that’s something I love to do but haven’t done for decades. Clara grows tremendously within the confines of this story, all because her self awareness grows and her confidence builds, thanks to the realization that she can do things, she can be brave and the faith that others have in her. Sometimes, all we need to grow is to have a chance to see outside ourselves and get a different perspective on life’s situations. A truly heartwarming story, 5 stars!

How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates

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Young adult dystopian!
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates.
The story opens as Astrid notices the lighthouse that has been unlit for a long time, coming to life. She wakes up her neighbor Hank. The community is annoyed at Astrid because she keeps talking about the light being on in the lighthouse. She thinks they’re upset because they’re hiding something. The story felt somewhat drawn out and not as exciting, dangerous or suspenseful as I would have liked it to be. This could have been a truly scary story if it was built up more. I did like how creepy the wicker’s comments were because they were spoken so calmly. 3 stars for this young adult dystopian

What I Want You to See by Catherine Linka

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Interesting and unique story!
Thanks to NetGalley and Disney Book Group for the opportunity to read and review What I Want You to See by Catherine Linka!
Sabine has lost her mother and is now on her own. She’s attending art school and has great talent. She’s attending due to a scholarship but her art teacher is harsh and without his recommendation, she won’t keep her scholarship and will have to drop out of school. Sabine gets conned into practicing and perfecting her artistic skills by secretly painting a replica of her tough professor’s painting, that has yet to be revealed. This painting has already been sold for almost a million dollars but when it’s put out for the art exhibition, Sabine knows it’s not the professor’s painting but her copy because she can see her flaws. She’s devastated and realizes she was tricked and now she’s going to be the fall guy because the con man has fled. The story touches on homelessness and college students who struggle to make ends meet. The author has given information about homelessness in her ending notes. Riveting suspense and food for thought. 4 stars!

Laughter Yoga by Madan Kataria, M.D.

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Great reasons to keep laughing!
Thanks to NetGalley And Penguin Books for the opportunity to read and review Laughter Yoga: Daily Practices for Health and Happiness by Madan Kataria, M.D.!
The book takes readers through the origins or beginnings of Laughter Yoga and what this practice actually is and onto the process and how it works. Then it teaches how to laugh more alone and within a group, the shared benefits, and gives ideas for using Laughter Yoga. A Laughter Quotient Quiz opens the book and allows readers to rate the amount of laughter in their lives. I have a laughter quotient of 78 which falls in the category of “you are good at laughing, but you can do better”. Laughter Yoga practice starts with stretching, clapping and chanting which can lead to a playful attitude and onto laughter, especially in a group setting. Deep breathing exercises prepare us for belly laughing which is a healing laughter. A regular session has fifteen steps and lasts about twenty minutes but alternative options are shared to vary the session experiences. Yoga nidra is explained also. This is putting your body to sleep while your mind stays awake. This practice helps rejuvenate a person and thirty minutes of yoga nidra equals two hours of regular sleep. Fascinating practice that I tried and I agree with the helpful results. Three key tips for laughter yoga are to know laughter, do laughter and be laughter. Wonderful reasons for making laughter a part of daily life, 5 stars!