Delacorte Press; 530 pages; $30.00; Amazon

Tonight marks the return of Outlander: Season Three on STARZ after having a brief one-week break, in which we'll finally see the reunion between the characters Jamie (played by Sam Heughan) and Claire (played by Caitriona Balfe) after being apart for nearly twenty years. To get everyone ready for tonight's episodes, I thought it would be the perfect time for me to post my review for the recently released Seven Stones To Stand Or Fall by Diana Gabaldon.

No, this isn't the sequel to Written In My Own Heart's Blood, but instead it's  "A Collection of Outlander Fiction," featuring seven short stories/novellas that are all set in the Outlander universe. Five of the stories have appeared in other anthologies over the years, while the other two are appearing for the very first-time in print. Many of the stories centers on Lord John Grey, a character that debuted in Outlander: Season Three; however, Jamie Fraser does get his very own story called "Virgins."

Tommy Nelson; 20 pages; $8.99; Amazon

This is a counting picture book, where every two pages focuses on a number between 1-10. The artwork on every two pages represents one illustrated scene and each pages has one sentence.

The story is pretty simple; it involves a young Christmas bear who ventures outside to play in the snow and makes several new friends, including a puppy, two tiny mice, funny foxes, squirrels, rabbits, eagles, caribous, and owls. The kids play all day in the snow, until their parents call them home near night, when the Christmas stars are twinkling bright in the sky.

Scholastic; 152 pages; $6.99; Amazon

For anyone who follows this blog, you probably already know I'm a big R.L. Stine fan. I've been collecting his books ever since the first Goosebumps title was published in the early 1990s, so of course, I couldn't go a Halloween without reviewing at least one of his books.

Now available from Scholastic is the third installment of the Goosebumps SlappyWorld series, titled "I Am Slappy's Evil Twin."

Inspired by The Adventures of Pinocchio, Slappy is an evil ventriloquist's doll, who likes to terrorize his owners. Since the character first debuted in 1992's Night of the Living Dummy, Slappy has become a fan favorite villain. The character is now the star of own spinoff series, SlappyWorld, where he's the narrator and occasionally appears in the story.

"I Am Slappy's Evil Twin" kicks off with a three-chapter prologue that's set in 1920 and shows the origins of two evil puppets, which happens to be Slappy and his twin Snappy. The book then fast forwards to the present day, where us readers are introduced to the main characters, twelve-year-old Luke Harrison, his younger sister Kelly, and his best friend Jamal.

Luke's father is the owner of Horror House Films, where he produces horror movies, which explains why there are so many horror memorabilia throughout their home. Things start to get weird after Mr. Harrison brings home two identical puppets, which he's using in one of his latest horror films. As soon as Mr. Harrison turns his back, the puppets come to life and begin stalking Luke, Kelly, and Jamal!

Slappy and Snappy plan on making their very own horror flick and Luke, Kelly, and Jamal are the stars of it!

Revell; 384 pages; $14.99; Amazon

After dealing with a 48-hour flu bug, I'm back with another "Review Catch Up Marathon!" post, which is my attempt to get caught up with all the backed up books that are piled up collecting dust. All of these books have been read, I just need to write the reviews for them.

A few months ago, you might of recall my review for the novel Naomi's Hope, which was book three in the Journey To Pleasant Prairie series by author Jan Drexler. Well, today's review is for the second books in the series, titled Mattie's Pledge.

Set in the 1940's, Mattie's Pledge centers on a young Amish woman named Mattie Schrock, who has to leave her entire life behind when her father decides to move the family west from Somerset County, Pennsylvania to an Amish community in Indiana. Traveling by wagon is going to be tough, but Mattie is looking forward to reconnecting with her old friends that are joining them from another Amish community. She's especially looking forward to seeing Jacob Yonder, as she has feelings for him.

Jacob has changed a lot since the last time he had seen Mattie. His goals and dreams have changed. He's ready to settle down, get married, and start a family.

As for Mattie, she's keeping her future wide open, especially after she meets an Englisher, who wants her to leave her Amish lifestyle and travel out west with him.

Bethany House; 350 pages; $15.99; Amazon

Yes, I'm well aware that "The Proving" by Beverly Lewis only came out last month but I'm still going to feature as a "Review Catch Up Marathon!" post.

I'm not for sure what year it was, but the very first book I read by Beverly Lewis was The Covenant (Abram's Daughters, Book One). I received it through a book club. I remember I had to pick out one more book to buy in the introduction package before joining, and I just randomly picked The Covenant.

Anyhow, "The Proving" is a standalone novel that centers on Amanda "Mandy" Dienner, a young woman who had left her Amish lifestyle to live her life as an Englisher. Well, that's until she learns her mother has passed away and has left her an Amish bed-and-breakfast in Lancaster County.

Of course things aren't always as simple as they look, as there is a catch to her inheritance - Mandy has to successfully run the bed-and-breakfast for one year!

After some thought, Mandy goes back home to the face the family she'd left behind and to take over her mother's business, but there's one other catch - the bed-and-breakfast's guests expects their host to be Amish!

Scholastic; 152 pages; $6.99; Amazon

Now available from Scholastic is Goosebumps SlappyWorld: Attack Of The Jack! written by the bestselling author R.L. Stine.

The original Goosebumps book series debuted in 1992 with "Welcome To Dead House." The books quickly became popular with middle graders. Sixty-two titles were published between 1992-1997, before a spinoff series Goosebumps 2000 took over in 1998. The books were adapted into a low-budget live-action anthology television series that aired on FOX Kids from 1995 to 1998. Several other spinoff book series were released during the late 1990s, titled Give Yourself Goosebumps, Goosebumps Presents, Goosebumps Triple Header, and Tales To Give You Goosebumps.

The Goosebumps franchise was resurrected in 2008 with a brand-new book series called Goosebumps Horrorland. More spinoff series followed - Goosebumps Hall of Horrors, Goosebumps Most Wanted, and Goosebumps SlappyWorld.

"Attack Of The Jack!" is the second book in the Goosebumps SlappyWorld series. Unlike the other spinoffs, this series features an introduction by the #1 favorite Goosebumps villain Slappy, the ventriloquist dummy. "Attack Of The Jack" centers on twelve-year-old Violet Packer and her ten-year-old brother Shawn being sent to a little New England seaside village, Sea Urchin Cove, for the summer; where they will stay with their uncle Jim for the summer while their parents are traveling for work.

Uncle Jim, an old admiral, lives in a lighthouse with his talking cat named Celeste. While Violet and Shawn were a little nervous about staying with an uncle they barely knew, their attitudes change as they get settled into the lighthouse. They can explore the lighthouse all they want, but Uncle Jim told them never to open one specific door. Of course, Violet and Shawn get bored and open the door to the room, where they find a chest full of jack-in-the-boxes. However, what they didn't know is that the evil Captain Jack and his crew are locked up in the boxes.

Bethany House; 432 pages; $15.99; Blog Tour; Buy Link

Now available from Bethany House is the historical romance "A Name Unknown," book one in the Shadows Over England series, by Roseanna M. White.

While I do read novels set around WWII, my favorite historical fictions are the the ones set in the 1800s. By the cover alone for "A Name Unknown," I thought maybe the novel was set in the late 1800s, judging by what the woman on the cover is wearing and her hairstyle. However, as it turns out, I was wrong about what era the novel is set in. The novel is actually set around WWI. Despite being slightly disappointed with the era, I went ahead and read the novel. (Yes, I know! I should read the blurb before signing up to review it.)

Titan Books; 348 pages; $7.99; Amazon

I've had the worst blogging experiences trying to write my review for Alien: Covenant: The Official Movie Novelization. After reading the novel last month, I had set up the basics for my review - images, buy link, etc., but then, abracadabra, the post was magically deleted. Frustrated, I put aside writing the review for a few weeks. Then I slowly worked on a long review, where the first few paragraph talked about the history of novelizations. Over the weekend, I dabbled a little more with the review, and then early yesterday morning I finished writing it. I did a little editing and I was seconds away from clicking the  'publish' button when suddenly the entire text disappeared within a flash. I went to use the "undo" button, but it wasn't available, as if my review was never written. After a few cuss words came flying out mouth, I calmed down and began to write what you are currently reading. No, it's not the review I wanted to post, but it is what it is, and hopefully a few readers will enjoy it.

Why did I read a novelization to begin with?

Well, I wanted to watch the science fiction-horror flick Alien: Covenant, but I knew the one-screen theater in my town would never get the movie becasue it was rated R, which is normally a no no for a volunteer-run theater. Instead of waiting for the film to be released to Blu-ray (Next month, right?), I decided to read the novelization.

Alien: Covenant: The Official Movie Novelization is written by Alan Dean Foster, based on the screenplay by John Logan and Dante Harper. Alien: Covenant is a sequel to the 2012 film Prometheus, as well as being a prequel to the original Alien (1979). This isn't the first time author Alan Dean Foster has ventured into the Alien universe, as he also wrote the novelizations of Alien, Aliens, and Aliens 3.

The novel opens up with a prologue (aka, Chapter 1), where we see the creation of David, the synthetic android that appeared in Prometheus. The following chapter introduces the colonization ship Covenant that is bound for a remote planet called Origae-6, carrying two thousand colonists and a thousand human embryos. After the ship is damaged from a stellar neutrino burst, the android named Walter wakes up the crew from stasis.

Zonderkidz; 24 pages; $3.99; Amazon

Now available from Zonderkidz is the newest entry in the Living Lights Berenstain Bears picture book series, titled The Berenstain Bears: Bless Our Gramps & Gran, written and illustrated by Mike Berenstain.

Ever since the first Berenstain Bears' title was published back in 1962, generations of young readers have been entertained by the adventures of the Berenstain Bears. The original authors, Stan and Jan Berenstain, have both passed away, but their son, Mike, has taken over the franchise.

Bless Our Gramps & Gran is set on rainy September afternoon, where Brother, Sister, and Honey are bored out of their minds. Besides from homework, the cubs have nothing new to look forward to.

Papa Bear mentions that Halloween is just around the corner, but Sister complains that is still nearly two months away. That's when Papa points out another holiday on the calendar - Grandparent's Day.

Brother, Sister, and Honey quickly become excited about the Grandparent's Day and come up with a creative gift idea to make for their Gramps and Gran.

Water Press; 345 pages; Buy Link; Blog Tour

Now available from Waterfall Press is the historical drama Grounded Hearts by Jeanne M. Dickson.

Set in Ireland during WWII, the novel centers on a widowed midwife Nan O'Neil finding an injured Canadian RAF pilot, Dutch Whitney, at her door. Any solider discovered in Ireland must be reported and interned, which is a major problem for Nan, as she doesn't want to be caught harboring a combatant.

Being released this summer from Pocket Star eBooks are the first two books in the all-new e-novella series "The Girls Of Spindrift" by V.C. Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author of Flowers in the Attic and My Sweet Audrina. There will be four e-novellas in the series, which will all form a prequel to the novel Bittersweet Dreams (2012).

Kindle; Nook

CORLISS, Book One of the Girls of Spindrift, was released today! It centers on an incredibly intelligent teenager named Corliss. Despite her high IQ, she doesn't have very many friends, mostly due to her shyness and her difficulty of fitting in with the other students at the Los Angeles high school. Though she has always been known as the 'good girl" in school, Corliss gets in a bit of trouble at a school party, where a group of girls spikes her drink.

After a trip to the emergency room, which scares her parents to death, Corliss decides to get even with her classmates.

DONNA, Book Two of the Girls of Spindrift, will go on sale on August 14th! It centers on a half Latino, half Irish teenager named Donna, who is the most gifted student at her high school. Her teachers have no clue what to do with her, as it seems she always has the correct answers to every test she takes. Of course having a high IQ comes with a price, as Donna isn't very popular at school.

Out of nowhere, a boy becomes interested in Donna, which leads to her stepping outside of her comfort zone. Everything in her life seems to be perfect, well, that is until a violent confrontation rocks her world.

Simon & Schuster; 300 pages; $19.99

My original plan was to read more of  the The Broken Road late last night, but I had to put that idea aside when I noticed I had a few posts that needed to be set up for today. Nevertheless, I awoke bright & early this morning, made a cup of strong coffee, sat in a cozy recliner, and opened The Broken Road to chapter one. After a few refills of coffee, I finished reading the book.

Unlike many Richard Paul Evans' titles that either have a Christmas or romance theme (or both), The Broken Road has neither. Instead this novel is about the journey of finding redemption.

Four years ago, Mr. Evans took a trip on Route 66 to research his upcoming book. Though he had somewhat of an idea of what the plot might be about, he changed his mind after meeting an unique man, who gave him inspiration for The Broken Road.

The novel is written from the point-of-view of Charles James, a Chicago celebrity who struck rich with his 'get rich' seminars and a few bestselling nonfiction titles. Despite all the money and fame, something is missing from his life. After having a few bad dreams, he visits a shrink, and through a few appointments he tells life story up to that point of time.

Thomas Nelson; 308 pages; $12.99; Amazon

You'll Think Of Me by Robin Lee Hatcher has been sitting on desk for over month now, and I've finally taken the time out to read it. As you can probably tell by the cover with a man embracing a beautiful woman near an apple tree, this is a romance novel. Well, to be more precise, it's a Christian romance novel.

The novel centers on a woman named Brooklyn Myers who's raising her young daughter, Alycia, in Reno, Nevada by herself. She had married Chad Hallston when she was just seventeen-years-old, but the marriage didn't last long and Chad later left shortly after Alycia was born. Out of the blue, Brooklyn receives word that Chad has died of a rare heart condition and has left his family's house & land in Thunder Creek, Idaho to his daughter.

Every romance story needs a male lead in it, which happens to be Derek Johnson in this novel, the best friend of Chad Hallston. While Derek isn't working for the sheriff department, he's working on his 3-acre orchard farm. His dream is to run a successful organic fruit farm, but to do so he would have to expand his land. He almost has enough money for a down-payment on the neighboring land. All ten-acres belongs to Chad Hallston, well, that is until his best friend died. While Derek is upset that Chad didn't leave the property to him in the will, he's even more shocked to learn about Chad's last wish - he wants Derek to be a father-figure to Alycia.

Little Brown & Company; 448 pages; $28; Amazon

For anybody who follows this blog regularly, it should be no surprise to find me reviewing a James Patterson novel.

Yes, I like reading mysteries, and yes, Mr. Patterson happens to be one of my favorite authors. Of course that hasn't always been the case, as I started reading his books around 2003 or 2004 after my grandmother gave me a few Patterson titles to read. I would buy each new title, read it, and then pass it on to her. After my grandmother's death in 2009, I've continued to buy every new Patterson title, well, the ones that I don't receive a review copy for on here.

This week I finished reading The Black Book by James Patterson & David Ellis. Despite being disappointed with Never Never (read my review here), my expectations for this one were high, mostly due to the fact that I had heard good things about the novel before I even started reading page one.

The Black Book starts off with a bizarre crime scene involving one male and two female victims. The male is the only one to survive the crime, and he happens to be Detective Billy Harney, the son of Chicago's chief of detectives, and the twin brother to Hatti, who is also a cop.

The novel flips back and forth from the past to present. In the past, Billy and his adrenaline-junkie partner, Detective Kate Fenton, are investigating a murder that leads them to an exclusive Chicago brothel that caters to rich and powerful. Their only lead to the killer might be inside a black book containing all the brothel's clients, but of course the book is missing.

In the present, as Billy recovers from his wounds, he tries to piece together the final hours that lead to the death of two women (I'm not naming names here as I don't want to give away too many spoilers!), but proving his innocence isn't going to be easy as he can't remember what actually happened that fatal night.

Putnam; 336 pages; $27; Amazon

The western genre in books and movies have become almost extinct in recent years. Department stores, like Walmart, carry very few western titles, which are mostly written by bigger profile authors.

I fell in love with the genre while I was in my early twenties after reading a Matt Braun novel. (I don't recall the title.) Since then, I occasionally read a western or two, and no I'm not referring to romance westerns.

Now available from Putnam is the ninth novel in the Cole/Hitch western series, titled Revelation. The series began with 2005's Appaloosa written by the late author Robert B. Parker. The book was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 2008. Three sequel novels soon followed. After Mr. Parker's death, Robert Knott, who co-wrote the Appaloosa film script, took over writing additional sequels in the series.

Revelation marks the ninth book in the series and the fifth written by Robert Knott. Once again, the series focuses on the territorial marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, who are  living in Appaloosa, New Mexico. After Augustus Noble Driggs and a few other convicts escape a stateside penitentiary just across the border from Mexico, Cole and Hitch lead a manhunt to find them. Of course such a mission sounds easy at first for the duo, but they quickly realize that there are more dangers in play here after one of the convicts kidnaps a woman.

As for Driggs, he's on his own mission to retrieve a stolen cache of gold and jewels and to get revenge on the men who betrayed him, but he'll have to outrun and outsmart the ruthless lawmen who are hot on his trail.

Zonderkidz; 30 pages; $9.99; Amazon

Now available to own just in time for Easter is the board book Princess Prayers, which is part of the "The Princess Parables" series, written by Crystal Bowman, who was inspired by the series original authors Jeanna Young & Jacqueline Johnson. Illustrations are by Omar Aranda.

ZonderKidz; 160 pages; $10.99; Amazon

Now available from ZonderKidz is The Berenstain Bears: Friendship Blessings Collection, featuring five picture books. The Berenstain Bears books were created by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Sadly, both the authors have passed away, but their son, Mike, has taken over the series by writing and illustrating new stories.

The collection includes:

Perfect Fishing Spot (originally published in ?) - Papa Bear wants fish for dinner. Instead of buying fish from Grizzly Fish, he takes Brother and Sister fishing.

Reap The Harvest (originally published in ?) - Brother and Sister Bear are out of school for the summer. They quickly become bored and start looking for a summer job to make some cash. The reply to a help wanted sign on Farmer Ben's farm. They get the job, but they don't get paid right away. Instead of giving the cubs cash, Framer Ben gives them a section of his crops.

Faithful Friends (originally published in 2009) Sister Bear befriends the new cub, Suzy, in school. Suzy doesn't have any other friends because she isn't like other cubs. Instead of playing, Suzy would rather be reading.

Kindness Counts (originally published in 2010) While getting ready to fly his model plane in the park, Brother Bear befriends a young cub named Billy, who also likes model planes.

God Made You Special (originally published in 2014) Sister Bear gets a little confused when she meets her best friend's cousin, Tommy. Tommy is the same age as Brother Bear, but mentally he acts a lot younger. Eventually, she learns that God made Tommy special from others.

Thomas Nelson; 226 pages; $12.99; Amazon

One of my go-to authors I can always rely on for a good read is USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble, who has written dozens of novels, from historical romances to contemporary ones. Whenever any of her new titles becomes available to review, I eagerly sign up to review each one; which happens to the case for Because Your Mine. I had signed up to review it back in late December or early January through the Book Look program from Thomas Nelson, but I'm just now getting around to reviewing it.

The novel centers on Alanna, a pregnant Irish singer who's husband, Liam, was killed in a car bombing while their Celtic band was on tour in Charleston, South Carolina. Why would someone kill her husband? Well, at least that's the question both Alanna the police are asking.

Before she can even mourn Liam's death, her father-in-law is threatening to fight for custody of her unborn child. Fearing the possible loss her child, Alanna agrees to marry her agent, Barry, so she can stay in the country, and hopefully protect her child.

Pocket Books; 440 pages; $7.99; Amazon

I hate to admit that I've fallen behind, yet again, on my reviews. I meant to review Broken Glass on it's release date on February 28th, but thanks to a few setbacks, an unwanted cold/flu bug, and a few other things that I not going to talk about on here, I have gotten terribly behind on writing my posts.

Published by Pocket Books, Broken Glass is the second in the Mirror Sisters series. Despite the fact that the name V.C. Andrews is printed on the cover, she's not the author. The real V.C. Andrews died in 1986. Shortly after her death, a ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman was hired to write under name.

It's no big secret that I'm not the biggest fan of ghostwriter's work in recent years. The books have loss their Gothic vibe and have slowly turned into the run-of-the-mill young adult thrillers. A few of these titles are decent reads, while others are horribly written. In my humble opinion, it's time for a new ghostwriter, preferably a female author who can write in a Gothic tone, but until then (if ever) I will tolerate the current novels and hope for the best.

In the first novel Mirror Sisters (you can read my review here), we (us readers) were introduced to Haylee and Kaylee Fitzgerald, identical twins who shared literally everything thanks to their controlling mother. It ended in a cliffhanger with Haylee planning on meeting up with an older man she had met on the internet. Not feeling very well on that very night, and not wanting to disappoint the man, she talks her sister, Kaylee, into taking her place. Unexpected to them, the man happens to be a nutcase and kidnaps Kaylee.

Zonderkidz; 24 pages; $3.99; Amazon

Now available from Zonderkidz is the newest entry in the Berenstain Bears' picture book franchise, titled "Blessed Our Pets" written and illustrated by Mike Berenstain, the son of the original creators Stan and Jan Berenstain.

Many of the newer titles have added Christian themes to the plots, which have received mixed reactions from older fans (readers) of the series.

"Bless Our Pets" centers on the Chapel in the Woods having a "Blessing of the Animals" event, where the Preacher Brown is going to bless everyone's pets. Of course Brother, Sister, and Honey Bear are excited that they get to bring their pets, Little Lady (a dog), Gracie (a cat), and Cutesy (a parakeet), to church with them.

Almost the entire population of Bear Country bring their pets to the blessing. There are animals of all kinds there. Everything goes as plan, well, until a dog chases a cat up a tree and then all chaos occurs.