The Book Stacks

This review was meant to go up last Friday. I apologize to the author and to those who where planning on this site being up and running last Saturday.

Marcelo is thrilled when he gets a golden retriever puppy for his birthday, but now he faces one of the toughest jobs of his life, not only because owning a pet is a huge responsibility, but because he has to find the perfect name for it—and that’s hard!

This is only the second children’s book I have reviewed here on The Book Stacks and it is the first children’s book in e-book format I have ever reviewed here. I’m not usually one for e-books, but I liked this book so much that reading it on screen instead of on page didn’t take much away from my enjoyment.

This very sweet book about Marcelo and his first puppy had me smiling all the way through. (And wishing I had a puppy of my own!)

Mayra touches on the responsibilities of owning a puppy while keeping it simple so even a very young child can understand both the love and work surrounding having a puppy. While I could nitpick about some of the words Marcelo says, perhaps I’m underestimating the intelligence and vocabulary of children. Besides, it doesn’t take away from the story whatsoever.

What’s even more is the art is done well with a lot of colours that every child will enjoy.

I definitely recommend this book for children – especially those who have a love of dogs. This short and sweet book will be the perfect present.

Want to get published? Do it yourself – and make a living from it!

Novice or Seasoned… New to the publishing game? TWFSP takes you step-by-step through every stage of your publishing success story. Been around the block a few times? You’ll walk away with a whole host of new tools and insights. Far from theoretical, TWFSP is one big case study: the author’s own “real-world” success chronicle.

In this how-to book from Peter Bowerman, nothing is hidden and no resources are withheld. Bowerman lays it all out for you so you have a true step-by-step guide instead of only the bits and pieces of what he wants to share.

TWFSP is an excellent book if you’re looking for a resource book in pursuing self-publishing. It’s easy to read and can probably answer any questions you have. Bowerman has a way of talking to you rather than at you about things so you can’t help but start feeling excited about the future possibilities for your book(s).

You have to be careful with charisma, though, because it’s easy to get caught up in an idea. While he does mention it in the first chapter, Bowerman could have spent more time emphasizing that it takes a lot of hard work to sell a book on your own and it also takes your own money to make things start happening.

Overall, this book is a great resource. It’s full of websites, examples, to-do lists, and much much more that any author or would-be author would benefit from having around.

Peter Bowerman’s Website

Relationship Magic invites you on a journey that moves away from childhood habits of reacting and moves towards gaining control of your personal power. Enjoy the tale of Prince James and Princess Cinda while you learn the basics of Imago Relationship Therapy. This couple, and their mentor, teach you how to be your own best friend rather than your worst enemy.

Being married just over a year and having everything still going very well, I wasn’t sure how I would react to a relationship book. However, I decided to go in with an open mind, and I’m glad I did.

Relationship Magic takes you through the lives of Prince James and Princess Cinda as they work through their issues and try to rebuild their crumbling marriage. While the reader (as I did) may at first feel ‘talked down’ to when having the subject of a deteriorating marriage put into a fairy-tale-esque type story, it makes the story easier to get into and the messages the author wants to get across easier to understand.

I was surprised to find myself so easily drawn into the relationship of the characters and applying it to my own relationship. Some lessons weren’t of interest to me, but I could see current behaviours of mine and childhood traumas that could easily lead to some of the problems James and Cinda were facing.

In the back of the book, there are also sections to help you get started with your own ‘relationship magic’ as well as a section for all the questions posed previously in the book.

I definitely recommend this book whether you ‘need’ relationship help or not. My husband and I don’t, but I still found things in the book that I could apply to my marriage and think about.

Ashley was not prepared for the turmoil and disasters this baby chimpanzee would create. At times, she wished she had left baby Tina at her home in Africa.

Would they ever be able to control her? Just how far would she go?

I haven’t reviewed a children’s book here on The Book Stacks and I can’t claim to know anything about the industry or how you do things when writing a children’s book. So if anything I say sounds strange or off track, please remember that.

That being said, I am happy to review a fun children’s book by Grace Riddick.

Riddick takes one childhood fantasy and turns it into a reality for her character, Ashley. Having brought home a chimp from Africa, Ashley quickly realizes that it’s not all fun and games when you care for a pet.

Like a good children’s book, Ashley’s Unforgettable Summer teaches a lesson as well as entertains. Children will love Tina the chimps mischievous all while seeing how much work a pet can be.

While I did notice a few errors in the punctuation, they didn’t take much away from the overall story being told. I would have personally liked to see more illustrations, but that’s purely just me.

I would recommend this story to any parent or child wanting a fun and entertaining read.

Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz is lucky to be alive, Not many people her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and lived to tell about it. Her dad, New Orleans detective, Rick Bentz, wants Kristi to stay in New Orleans and out of danger. But if anything, Kristi’s experiences have made her even more fascinated by the mind of the serial killer. She hasn’t given up her dream of being a true-crime writer – of exploring the darkest recesses of evil – and now she just may get her chance.

I’ll be honest with you – I’m not usually a murder mystery kind of woman. Nor am I a New York Time Bestseller reader. I should probably pay attention to that, but I simply don’t. So when Lost Souls by NYT Bestselling author Lisa Jackson arrived on my doorstep, I wasn’t quite sure what I was in for.

With a touch of the paranormal from the very beginning, Jackson presents you with a book that is outside the cookie cutter murder mystery. Thankfully, Jackson doesn’t stop there. She carries through the paranormal undertones all the way to her likeable – even though she’s a bit prickly – main character Kristi Bentz.

Kristi is just one of a cast of many strong characters Jackson has brought out to play in this dark and slightly twisted book. While it certainly good have gone deeper into the disgusting rituals involved in the murders, I, for one, was thankful Jackson kept the same mixture of strong characters, intruiging mystery, and just a dash of romance and the paranormal.

While Lost Souls can certainly stand on its own, Jackson treads a thin line with tapping on events of past books. I found myself occasionally feeling like I was missing out, having not read the previous books. However, hopefully this will work to Jackson’s advantage in boosting the sales of her previous books as well.

The ending leaves an obvious opening for another book involving the Bentz family, and I can happily say I like this book enough to want to read the next one.

I recommend Lost Souls even if mysteries or a touch of the paranormal isn’t your usual thing. It certainly isn’t mine, but I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and would definitely like some more.

Review by Mr. JM

So, is The Art of Smart Thinking (TAST) worth the read? For someone with little knowledge of Biofeedback, it is informative as to what can be achieved, but it is unlikely anyone inexperienced in such things could make use of the book to start on their path. As such, it is a good promotional book for the Biocybernaut Institute but I found myself disappointed at a lack of detail.

As a person with some knowledge of the subject and quite a bit of experience at the lesser brainwave entrainment level, I was hoping for some hard information that I could use to begin a path to achieving what is on the cover of the book.

The cover implies that by reading the book the reader can make gains. It specifically doesn’t mention that the book is about a process that can only be done in California and that what is inside is simply describing that process and what might be gained if you go. It isn’t really telling whoppers, but it is misleading. Mostly when you see a book like this, dealing with self-improvement, inside there is at least an attempt to offer processes or methods by which you might achieve what is being promised.

TAST is not a self-help book, although it appears to be. TAST is a teaser or promotional book to let people know about a series of courses being run by a commercial organization in California.

About halfway through the book I went to www.biocybernaut.com to see what was available. What I saw soured me for a while about the book. A seven day program to learn to use Alpha level brain functions costs around $15,000 – that’s a lot of money in anyone’s terms. It may be worth it; if the claims made are lived up to, what price do you put on turning a life around for the better, dealing with problems that could take years of psychotherapy or gaining access to techniques leading to enlightenment?

But also in the book is Hardt’s ideas about how the world could be better with biofeedback. Unfortunately, like such programs as Scientology, what this apparently means is improving only those who are well off. Not that many people have a spare $15,000 laying around and if you take a good look at society, it’s the ones who don’t have that kind of spare cash who really need the improvements offered by biofeedback. They are the ones locked into lives that are unfulfilling, who dramatise the effects of traumatic childhoods without access to expensive treatment, and, importantly, who vastly outnumber those who are on their path to enlightenment.

If programs like The Secret & what we are told of the Law of Attraction are anything to go by, it is those vast numbers of unhappy and fearful people who are having the major effect on how our world is going. The few who manage to break out of the trap may influence their own lives but until someone addresses the needs of those in misery and fear, the ideal of improving the world will not be achieved.

So, while what the book promises is enough to make me really want to do some biofeedback training, and the content of the book is enough to overcome the need for a revision to improve the readability, overall what it has done is left me a bit depressed. My situation is such that it will be years before I can afford to do even the first seven day course (and I wouldn’t do it without my wife so double the amount) plus the travel and other expenses.

I’m left with the feeling someone has shown me the lolly shop then told me my allowance isn’t enough to get even a small one without saving up for years. I’d give my left one to be able to go and do the courses. I’d start with the basic Alpha training and as soon as possible, move into the Theta level training. But that is (if at all possible) many years and many thousands of dollars off into the future.

Review by Mr. JM

States of Mind as measured by brain waves are a fascinating area to get into. James Hardt opens new areas in his book The Art of Smart Thinking (TAST) as he brings out his explorations into what is possible using biofeedback.

I first started delving into the various brainwave levels using a technology called Brainwave Entrainment. The brain has an unusual feature; when it hears a tone in one ear and a slightly different tone in the other, it will add them both to produce a stereo effect that’s actually unheard by either ear. Somewhere in the brain, the two tones produce a ‘beat’ that is the difference between the two tones.

If the beat is at the range of the natural brainwaves, the brain can become ‘entrained’ or sort of go into sympathetic rhythm with the beat. After a short period (about 7 minutes) it begins to follow along with the beat and can enter the state of mind associated with that beat. So using brainwave entrainment, we can enter (say) deep meditation (low Theta) more easily than simply trying to mediate into that level of trance.

If the beats fall into the Alpha range, it can provide an enhanced learning or creative frame of mind. If we use a Delta beat, we can slip quickly into deep sleep and get more real rest in a couple of hours than we would in a normal night of sleep.

But in Brainwave Entrainment, the mind is being led. It’s like an hypnosis, leading the brain into states but not actually teaching us to achieve those states voluntarily. Biofeedback offers a new level of access to these states of mind. With biofeedback, we can learn to initiate the chosen brainwave state without the external stimulus.

Biofeedback has been used to help with physical complaints like Reynard’s disease. Hardt explains this and some of the more general uses to which the technology has been applied. Most people would have heard that, using biofeedback, a person can learn to relax, and perhaps also about slowing heartbeat.

According to Hardt, any body function for which we can get an immediate physical feedback can be controlled by conscious will. Where he goes further is to claim in TAST, and provide background information for, the use of biofeedback to provide changes in mental states.

These include, but are not limited to, changes in self image, in relationships, in happiness, in creativity and in spirituality.

Review by Mr. JM

For a long time I have been interested in the potential of the human mind. In the 80’s I read about biofeedback and the possibilities were extremely interesting. It seemed normal people could learn some of the things formerly attributed solely to gurus and mystics who had studied and trained for decades to learn control of self.

The cover of The Art of Smart Thinking (TAST) says ‘Give Yourself a Brain Lift’ ‘Reverse Brain Aging’ ‘Enhance Creativity’ and ‘Increase IQ.’ Big claims to make and I was interested to see if the book could substantiate them.

The beginning is (probably necessarily) mostly history of how Hardt came to his current ideas and procedures; interesting but in parts, it was annoying. The book needs better editing; in a number of places, not only phrases, but sometimes entire sentences are repeated within a few lines of each other.

Another slight hitch in reading is there are signs that Hardt wrote some and someone else wrote parts that have been merged in. There are references to Hardt in the third person.

But the content kept me reading. The information being presented made for a forgiving attitude as I followed along with learning what Biofeedback could do.

The brain can be monitored for electric fields; this has been known for a long time. Over the decades the fields have been measured and named. Starting from the highest frequencies, they are Gamma, (above 40Hz) Beta, (15 – 40Hz) Alpha, (9 – 14Hz) Theta (5 – 8Hz) and Delta (0 – 4Hz). These are approximate figures.

Mostly while awake, we run on Beta and during meditation or sleep, we may drop to Theta or Delta. Alpha level is an unusual range. A person who has completed a task and relaxes may show Alpha waves. So may someone involved in creative thought.

In deep meditation, we show Theta waves in the scans, indicating the brain has slowed or changed to a different state of being. The states of being seem to show different capacities and functions for those experiencing them.

And sometimes different states are necessary. In deepest sleep we show Delta waves, and if we go too long without achieving deep sleep we experience health problems ranging from tiredness and disorientation through to (if kept going to long) states that might be seen as insanity.

So exploration of, and achieving the various states of mind can be beneficial on a number of levels and pursuing such achievement would seem to be worthwhile for personal growth.

In Bad Dreams [Horror Anthology]
Volume One: Where Real Life Awaits
Edited by Mark S. Deniz and Sharyn Lilley

Front by Miles Deacon

Nothing pun-like intended here, but the first thing I definitely noticed about this story is the beginning. Not a lot of authors begin their stories on the latrine of all things, but Deacon does a good job in using this tool to capture your attention.

Front is a fast paced like a short story should be, packed with information and a ‘full’ world despite the shorter length, but it doesn’t feel rushed. Deacon does an excellent job of giving you a full, satisfied feeling (or horror) that is the mark of a truly good short story writer.

John’s behavior with dog tags curious after a while and it wasn’t long before I was wondering about their significance. The symbolism of the dog tag in war times hasn’t been lost on many authors, so I had a lot of possibilities to choose from. That in combination with the mystery deaths of the men kept me reading on without pause.

If you don’t like stories where you don’t get to know the ‘why’ of everything, then you might not like this story so much… Yet, I am someone who likes to know the ‘why’ of things, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this story immensely.

If this first story in this short story collection is setting the bar for quality of horror, then I know I am going to enjoy every moment of the rest of this book.

Mothers, fathers, children, wives, husbands – everyone deserves a second chance, don’t they? Or do they?

Finally! Finally I have found a main character who I can truly relate to as a deeply in love with my husband, slightly neurotic, work at home, list loving woman. Did you hear that sigh of contentedness? That was me.

Second Chance by Joy Collins is the story of Sara Weber, her family, her husband, and her husband’s baggage – namely a daughter named Claudia and the ex-wife, Mona. Sara’s life spirals out of control when her mother’s condition deteriorates and Claudia moves in with Sara and her husband so she can go to the local university.

When Claudia is involved in a car accident, things only get worse when family secrets are slowly reveled and Mona flies down to be with her daughter during recovery.

This book is very relationship driven and I loved every moment of it. As a married woman, I fell right in with Sara and the story of this part of her life. While reading about her disagreements with her husband about the ex-wife, I couldn’t help but wish I could go into the book and say, “It’s not you she doesn’t trust, it’s Mona!”

Being a woman who is divorce and remarried, Sara knows a lot about second chances, which is a strong theme through this book. What I liked best about Collins’ use of this theme is that she makes it realistic – sometimes second chances work and sometimes they come back to bite you in the rear end.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re a woman, and especially if you’re in a relationship situation dealing with divorce. This fun and meaningful read will not only help to entertain you but will help you examine your own life.

Find more at SecondChanceNovel.com

Daniel Crosse, highwayman, thief, murderer and leader of the notorious Country Gentlemen, is unaware he carries a secret. Daniel holds the key to the future existence of the world.

Cassandra is the lock to Daniel’s key, with knowledge that will set his life upon a course he never dreamed possible. Will love be strong enough, set amid the beauty and dangers of a volcanic land, to fulfill an eight-hundred-year-old prophecy?

DragonCrosse, the first of a trilogy, is a book that leaves me feeling a bit conflicted as to how to ‘rate’ it.

The book reads easily, as if it was written for a younger audience, but this definitely isn’t a young adult fantasy book. With sex, violence, swearing and more, it lands well and truly in the ‘adult fantasy’ side of the spectrum.

Thomas has paid a lot of attention to detail, especially for geography’s sake. Having travelled around New Zealand volcanic areas in person, I loved the setting of the volcanic areas Thomas created by inspiration and didn’t mind the long descriptions of the landscape there.

Unfortunately, this can and will bore some readers, who would rather not pay attention to the geography wherever and whenever the Country Gentlemen (which is often). Descriptions often come in paragraph(s) length and very much contribute to the 700+ page length of the book. Though Thomas’s love of geography definitely shines through, she lets it dominate her book like a huge character who never does anything.

After about the fifth or sixth mention of how silver Princess Cassandra’s eyes are and how blue Daniel’s are, I found myself getting a bit annoyed whenever they were mentioned after. But like with a lot of my nitpicks with this book, I ignored them and kept reading on.

All in all, DragonCrosse is an entertaining book and a good light read for anyone who is looking for such. If that is what you’re looking for, then I definitely recommend it.

However, if you want something a bit ‘deeper’ that will truly make you think or are looking forward to a book full of action, then this probably isn’t the book for you. There is a lot of human interaction, but the plot isn’t filled with a lot besides relationships and geography.

*Special guest book review by Nick Oliva.*

Beatle George Harrison wrote “Something” for her and it remains one of the most covered Beatle songs ever. Eric Clapton, the guitar hero of the world for over three decades wrote the Derek and the Dominoes 1974 Album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” that fast and furious super-hot rock and roll epic about his love for this model and former wife of George Harrison and eventually Eric’s-Pattie Boyd. She’s the only woman to have two superstars write songs to her, and in her prime, her intoxicating beauty was that of a sexual siren driving men’s souls to the rocks in pure passion.

Her new book “Wonderful Today” is a biography that seems to want to tell all, and indeed sheds light on this wonderful woman who came from an abused childhood to make it as one of the world’s top models. Ms. Boyd begins in a chronological fashion with pictures of family and tales of Kenya with snakes, tigers, and scary natives. Quite the childhood, but then when her parents separate she is forced back to England with an abusive and cruel step-father.

The voice of the book is sweet and innocent, but the sixties flower children go through an innocence of their own and as the drugs they use to free their minds and give them empowerment for hope eventually drive them to pure misery as well. She became the wife of Mr. Harrison at the end of a fairy-tale courtship, but due to the heavy hand of the Beatle’s Manager Brian Epstein, was denied a proper wedding, as the public was not to know George was “no longer available” in the heady days of Beatlemania.

She and George lived a simple life, in a relatively small house with George off to the studio each day and Pattie embracing the role of wife, lover, cook, and home keeper. It was all she wanted and needed. George on the other hand became intensely involved in meditation, ironically because of Pattie’s suggestion, to fill a need for a childhood he never completely experienced, and they all went off to the Yogi Master Maharishi Mahesh in India.

For those who haven’t read past books on the Beatles, her book is full of references such as their Los Angeles house on “Blue Jay Way” and Prudence Farrow, Mia’s sister, was the “Dear Prudence” who would not leave her house in India with the Maharishi. Sergeant Pilcher was the British police officer who busted John Lennon, George, and many other rock and rollers of the day for drugs including Mick Jagger. “Jennifer Juniper” was a Donovan song for Pattie’s sister Jennifer who was also Mick Fleetwood’s main squeeze off and on and there are many other tidbits of rock trivia that have their place in history connected to Pattie’s life with George.

George eventually became emotionally unattached to her as he began binging on drugs and then meditation trying to find his way through a lost childhood. Eric Clapton then appears writing her passionate letters and begging her to leave George for a life with him.

At first, she thinks this is all very nice and flattering, but then Eric goes on a heroin binge because of her refusal to give in and be with him much like a spiteful boy. Eventually George’s lack of attention and Eric’s determined persistence, get the best of Pattie and she leaves George to follow Eric on tour. Years go by and the addiction to drugs, alcohol, and heroin take their toll on “Slowhand” and he shows no attempt to stay faithful to any one woman.

As much as Pattie wants to understand and deal with the issues of his dalliances and drunkenness, she indeed compromises her own principles in doing so, the relationship grinds to an inevitable crash as Eric “keeps on keepin’ on,” in full persona of what a rock star “is all about-After Midnite”-sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Pattie was and is only looking for love with someone who can make her laugh, and treat her as an equal.

This book is not a kiss and tell epic, and one would love to hear some of the intense times of emotion and vase throwings I’m sure, but one can sense the immense pain she had in finally putting this to words for all to read without destroying her relationships especially with Clapton.

Her only mistake was believing in young men that couldn’t tie their shoes on their own, and needed to grow up and take their marriage seriously. But now at last she is on her own, enjoying her life without expectations and has accepted her responsibility in enabling these “boys” and being a part of the problem. She still maintains great beauty within and without and is and will always be the mythical lady immortalized much like Helen of Troy in that Pattie launched a million flickers of light for encores at concerts everywhere in the world.

“Layla, you still got me on my knees…”

Rahkel Williams, grief stricken over her beloved Uncle’s murder, decides to take matters into her own hands in solving the mystery surrounding the murder. Becoming obsessed with finding her Uncle’s killer, and no definite answers from the police, she enlists the services of private investigator Darrin Miller. With his help, she sets out to find answers and it’s not long before they both begin to get personal.

Soon Rahkel finds herself caught up in something bigger than she ever imagined, where no one can be trusted completely. As people start getting killed, she begins to wonder if she’s next…

I am one of those people who claim to not like mystery novels very much, and then I read one and get caught up in the mystery just as fast as the biggest mystery fan.

Searchable Whereabouts definitely did not disappoint in that area. The main character, Rahkel, who is not only easy to get to know but a character you can relax with, caught me up in the mystery of murders happening in her life.

Like Rahkel, I pondered over the clues – even when not reading – and tried to figure out what was really going on. While I had my ideas of what was happening, the story was engaging and kept me reading even with my certainty.

The setting of this novel is almost like a character in itself. Complete with a mall, local salons, and even a few strange people in the residential areas, this story feels like it could be set in almost any medium city. Johnson knows her setting and uses it quite effectively for this book.

The main thing that keeps me from wildly singing the praises of Searchable Whereabout is the editing. While I enjoyed reading the book, the mistakes caught the attention of the editor in me, making it hard to focus on the book purely as a reader. With a mixing of different types of errors, I felt disappointed at times because it detracted from the value of the story being told.

Even so, I was sad to see the story end where it did. I wasn’t quite ready to give Rahkel and her family up.

I recommend this book, regardless if you’re a mystery fan or not. If you can ignore the mistakes, you will enjoy this book.

Jonathan Fitch is distraught when his girlfriend, Serafina, leaves him. And so desperate, in fact, that, when the peculiar Mr Rinyo-Clacton makes him an offer of one million pounds with only one year to live, he agrees to the proposal. But soon both Fitch and Serafina find themselves embroiled in Rinyo-Clacton’s strange sadistic games, and Fitch begins to wonder quite what it is that he has agreed to…

Have you read or watched something that, when you were done, you sat and stared blankly for a moment, wondering what you had just experienced? If you have, then you’ll know exactly how I felt when I finished reading this book.

I cannot describe this book better than calling it an ‘experience’. One of the first notes I made while reading this book was about the lack of description and how it felt abrupt, leaving me disappointed in some areas. However, the author decided to have a little fun with me then as he proceeded to describe many things that left me wondering what the point of the description was.

A lot of the book was like this – giving me something and then changing it the moment I made a note (mental or paper) about it. In that, the author was completely successful. While reading, I felt in a nearly constant state of ‘what’s going on’ and ‘what’s going to happen next’. That sort of seemingly aimless confusion won’t be appealing to all readers, though.

In fact, it didn’t particularly appeal to me either, but this book is akin to a car crash which you can’t quite bring yourself to look away from even though ‘polite society’ says you should.

In the end, I’m not sure whether I recommend this book or not. As you may have guessed by the review, I can’t even decide whether or not I like it.

Perhaps I will leave it as something you might like to read if you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary and ‘dark’ in quality. It’s also not too long, so you won’t feel cheated of your time if you decide you don’t like it.

Thirteen-year-old Daine has always had a knack with animals, but it’s not until she’s forced to leave home the she realizes it’s more thank a knack – it’s magic. With this wild magic, not only can Daine speak to animals, but also she can make them obey her. Daine takes a job handling horses for the Queen’s Riders, where she meets the master mage Numair and she becomes his student.

I read the Immortals quartet for the first time when I was about twelve, and eight years later I bought the whole quartet to own.

Tamora Pierce has a writing style that reflects my tastes – dialogue, focus on the people, action, and enough description to keep me aware that there are different locations. Her writing is clear but on a level that will be comfortable for the young adult reader.

Pierce does well in creating characters who are varied and have distinct personalities but who are also ‘simple’ enough so as not to distract the reader. The reader is interested in their personal lives, but their lives encourage the story along while satisfying what background a young girl is going to want to know about.

I mention young girl because, while young boys will probably enjoy this book, it’s great for young girls. Daine shows confidence, caring, and love even while dealing with some tough issues. She will be a great main character to follow.

Having read the entire quartet and knowing where some things end up, I do wish she would have started out a little older, but her age does serve well for the age group the books were written for so I won’t make a big deal out of it.

I definitely recommend this book. If you’re a mother with a young daughter, buy this book for her. You might even enjoy reading it yourself.