Book Review: Hugo & The Moment of Truth

Katie February 19, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial. Hugo the Happy Starfish is back in “The Moment of Truth”.  After waking up late, Hugo heads off to where he is supposed to be and tries to act like nothing has happened.  Except once people start asking him why he was late, he starts making up all sorts of stories.  Then he ends up sneaking a piece of candy without asking permission and when he is confronted about it, he lies again! Once he does confess, he thinks he is off the hook because eventually he told the truth.  But his friend Charisma explains that it doesn’t really count if you don’t tell the truth until after you have been found out.  She tells him that telling the truth is important and that if he just told her he liked the candy, she probably would have given him a piece!  Hugo learned a very important lesson about telling the truth and integrity.

This is another great story with a great lesson from Hugo the Happy Starfish.  Lying doesn’t achieve anything except make your friends lose their trust in you.  Something that everyone should learn about!

About the Book

Come on a sea adventure with HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH as he finds out that HAPPINESS begins withINTEGRITY.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (THE ISLAND OF INTEGRITY) contains a great educational lesson about learning to do the right thing. It explains what trust is all about, how it is built and how important it is for a friendship.

On the ISLAND OF INTEGRITY Hugo learns that that it is better to be honest in the first place and what the consequences can follow dishonesty, lying and stealing.

Hugo is a little starfish whose home is at the bottom of the wide ocean. He longs to visit the real world, and one day he decides to go and find it. Hugo’s journey to happiness isn’t quite as straightforward as he hopes though. He is sent to a series of different islands where he is taught important character lessons.
By the end of his journey, Hugo has visited fourteen islands, made many more friends, and, most importantly, learned how to be a better starfish.

‘HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH – ISLAND ADVENTURES’ is packed with life lessons for kids, showing them the importance of appreciation, patience, tolerance and optimism amongst others.

Teaching children life skills can be tricky, but with this exciting book your kids will come across some of the most important lessons there are to be learned. Like Hugo, their journey to the real world will be full of character lessons along the way.

In Hugo, children, parents, and educators will discover a lovable and engaging role model with whom they can identify.

The story consists of 28 gorgeous illustrations showing a colorful and magical underwater world.

Children will laugh at the delightful characters, hold their breaths in suspense and love to read this story over and over.

The book is suitable as a read aloud book for preschoolers or a self-read book for older children.

The book comes with a number of worksheets which are downloadable at no cost on our website.
The book is offered in two editions (a version with Spanish introductory vocabulary and an English only version) as well as in different languages such as German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

There are more HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH stories waiting to be discovered. Make sure to read THE LAST BULLY and THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS, THE MAGIC OF THE MOMENT, ONE STEP AT ATIME and many more.

Through his adventures, Hugo learns many valuable lessons of character, life skills, and ecological alertness – all amid the backdrop of a magical underwater world and mystical islands.
The stories were developed in conjunction with the author’s teaching experience at an International Baccalaureate® School and they support the different learner profiles and attitudes of the IB PYP curriculum.

Get your copy today and be sure to look out for more quality Kindle Books published by HAPPY LANGUAGE KIDS PUBLICATIONS!

www.MyStarfish.org

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.

Book Review: It Happened in Wisconsin

Katie February 19, 2014 0 Comments

It Happened in Wisconsin is the story of the Racine Robins. They are a baseball team during the Great Depression in the late 1930s.  The team is pretty good, but their baseball season gets side tracked a bit due to a snowstorm.  The players mentions that it shouldn’t be snowing during baseball season.  (Funny, because just last year there were games postponed due to snow in the MLB and that was a bit of a rarity!)  The team is forced to stop driving and find a hotel to crash at.  Once at the hotel, things with the team begin to fall apart.

All of the characters have their own personalities and dreams and while the baseball was being played they seemed to be getting along but while they are stuck in the hotel, there are temptations all around.  Some of them are missing their loves back home, others are finding new loves in the hotel.

I was expecting this book to have a bit more baseball in it than it did – the majority of the book was them at this hotel due to the storm. The story also seemed to bounce around a bit – but I think that is the “fault” of the narrator who is looking back on everything that happened rather than telling it as it happened. While it makes for a bit of bouncing – it is reminiscent of if you were talking to someone who is elderly about their stories of the past.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

2013 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — General Fiction

In an America ravaged by the Great Depression, a talented but ragtag baseball team sets out to change the world. Barnstorming the back roads and dusty ballparks of the Midwest, the Racine Robins rally fans to the populist cause, raising money for soup kitchens and strike funds even as they thrill small-town crowds and dazzle opponents on the field. Yet winning the hearts and minds of the people turns out to be easier for the players than facing the twin seductions of love and money, conflicting desires that threaten to derail everything they are fighting to achieve.

After a sudden April snowstorm forces the Robins to find shelter in the Rockefeller hotel, the team begins to pull apart. Tensions mount—one player falls in love for the first time—and old friendships threaten to unravel as the men face temptations and ambition. Can this tough, tight-knit group stay true to its great cause when dreams and longing come knocking?

Book Review: How to Barter for Paradise

Katie February 18, 2014 0 Comments

Michael Wigge is back with “How to Barter for Paradise” which tells of his journey through 14 countries, trading up from an apple to a house in Hawaii.  Yes, he traded an apple for a house in Hawaii. (Although not quite that simply.)  I have previously reviewed Michael’s other book How to Travel the World For Free so I was pretty excited to read about his adventures and see how he ended up trading an apple for a house.

The story was really quite fascinating and he meets a lot of interesting characters along the way.  Some don’t want to barter, some are all for it and others want to sue him.

In the end, Baterman, as he becomes to be known, does end up getting the house in Hawaii and I am amazed.

Once again, not sure that what he does is for me – but I certainly admire him for having a dream and figuring out a way to make it happen – no matter how crazy or out there it may seem to be to others.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Most people like to travel in comfort, but Michael Wigge isn’t like most people. After traveling the world without money for 150 days, he faces his next big challenge: turning an apple into a house in Hawaii.

Wigge visits fourteen countries and six continents exchanging goods for more valuable ones, and he meets an array of good-humored people who take his deals. Taking on his Barterman persona, he trades the apple for sixteen cigarettes in Germany; a couple of trades later in India, he fixes up a motorized rickshaw and trades it for silk; in Australia, a millionaire amuses himself by offering him an art piece for the silk if Wigge feeds a wild crocodile. Finally, he arrives in Hawaii armed with two bicycles, a surfboard, Portuguese porcelain, three solid-gold coins, a Porsche wristwatch, a record by musician Coati Mundi and an accompanying contract for 25 percent of the proceeds from his next single, a voucher for a twonight stay in a mansion in Los Angeles, and a piece of original artwork by painter Alex Stenzel—now he just has to find someone to give him a house in exchange.

On the two hundred–day journey around the world, Wigge makes forty-two trades and meets strange, kind, funny, friendly, eccentric, and good-natured people who help him in his quest. It’s a journey you won’t want to miss!

Book Review: Definitely Naughty

Katie February 18, 2014 0 Comments

Definitely Naughty is another Cosmo Red Hot Reads from Harlequin. (And another Christmas themed book that I haven’t been able to review until now. That’s the downside to selecting so many books and trying to only do 1 post a day!)  Aubrey is a window dresser at a Broadway Lingerie Boutique in New York City.  When she thinks that she is not going to come up with something for the windows by Christmas Eve Eve, she leaves the shop only to have a “Hot Guys” Trading Card fall into her hand from the sky!  Liam is a hot detective and a Mets fan! (Which makes Aubrey say ‘Ugh’ and made me almost not finish the book!)

Aubrey thinks that maybe Liam can be her muse and give her inspiration for the windows that she has to design and calls him up to meet.  Apparently with the hot guy cards you’re supposed to call who submitted the person as the hot guy, but Aubrey just tells Liam that she did and asks him to meet her at a bar.  He agrees and she asks if he will be her muse and have “lots and lots” of sex with her until Christmas Eve Eve, when is the big unveiling for the window.

Somehow, he agrees. (I mean, I guess if he didn’t, we wouldn’t have much of a book now would we?)  But both of them end up falling for each other even though their original plan had an end date.  Will Aubrey push Liam away? Will Liam let her if she tries? Hmm… read the book to find out 😉

This book was just over 100 pages and an easy read on a snowy afternoon!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Single Gal Seeks Naughty Inspiration

Aubrey Hayes @windowUndresser

Window dressing at Le Muse lingerie = best job ever. LOVE. But must design The Ultimate Window Display Of Hot Sex before Xmas. #panic 24h

A Hot Guys Trading Card just fell from the sky. Could this beautiful piece of man be my muse? It’s raining men. #hallelujah23h

OMFG, Detective Liam Flynn even hotter in person. May explode into a million pieces of lusty lady bits. #HandcuffMeNow 15h

It’s on. Have convinced the über-hot cop to be my naughty muse until Xmas. Two weeks of sex, here I come! *ahem* 14h

Muse Plan already working. Creative juices flowing. And Detective Liam Hotness is the best “inspiration” ever. Owe the Fates BIG time. 8h

But I only have him until Christmas. Keep it together, Aubrey—and DON’T fall for him. #SexNotLove 3m

Book Review: Wedding Dreams

Katie February 17, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Wedding Dreams is a motivational photography book from Suzy Libermann. I have reviewed several other of her photography books and have loved them all so I was very excited to see what sort of photos she had in store for the Wedding Dreams book. This book did not disappoint. It is full of beautiful wedding photography – cake, flowers, destination wedding photos along with positive words about the marriage process and love. Truly a beautiful message in such a small book.

About the Book

WEDDING  DREAMS

is a Motivational Photography Book created for your inspiration and daily meditation.

DREAM about a wedding! RELAX and INDULGE in the beauty of WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

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.

Book Review: Ripped

Katie February 17, 2014 0 Comments

Ripped is about Hayley who is a bridesmaid in her friends wedding.  She is forced to wear a hideous yellow dress that is probably too tight on her. Oh and did I mention that her friend is marrying her ex?  I was in to this book as soon as I found out that Hayley was an engineer! Yeah female engineers!  Anyway… back to the story.  As Hayley feared, her dress pops open in the church and she is naked from the waist up.  The best man, Nico hurries over to her and gives her his jacket and rushes her away from all the gawking stares.  Hayley thinks that Nico has no sense of humor and is always icy.  When the two begin making out in the room he ushered her into, she is shocked.  But their sisters both seem to walk in on them before anything more can happen.

Hayley has vowed that for the New Year her resolution is to just have meaningless sex with guys. Every time she tries a relationship it fails so she thinks this will be fool-proof.  When Hayley’s sister Rosie notices that Hayley has been thinking about Nico since the wedding, she invites him to their Christmas dinner. He ends up taking her away to his place – where she stays for 5 days! But she wants to stick to her resolution, even though it is not quite the New Year yet.  Can Nico convince her to give him a chance in the new year?

I really enjoy these Cosmo Red Hot Reads from Harlequin because for the most part they are short – so they get right to the good parts of the story without pages and pages of setting things up.  Any book I can read easily on a snowy afternoon is a win for me!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

“Wardrobe malfunction” doesn’t begin to cover it.

With a rip louder than the “I dos,” Hayley’s hideous bile-yellow bridesmaid dress explodes. She’s always had enviable curves, but nearly naked wasn’t quite the look she’d been going for at her ex’s wedding.

She’s rushed from the altar under the best man’s designer tux jacket. Hayley’s expecting a blast of icy disapproval from sexy, sophisticated Niccolò Rossi— his usual reaction to anything she does. What she gets is a kiss that nearly melts what’s left of her polyester nightmare gown.

It’s impossible on a million levels. Exuberant engineer Hayley and buttoned-up lawyer Nico have never seen eye to eye —but skin to skin? Oh, mio… So when Nico shows up at her flat on Christmas Day to give her a fabulous gift —himself —Hayley’s delighted to do the unwrapping. But it’s just a holiday fling. By New Year’s Day, she’ll come back to her senses…unless Nico’s sensual skills tear away all her resolve.