Another Way Home
by Deborah Raney
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Pub. Date: October 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1426770456
Pages: 304
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/draney
Buy Link: http://bit.ly/1NQhjf8

Review:

With October as well as all the posts for the Halloween Madness event finally over, it's time for me to posts a slew of book reviews, which I'm hoping to get caught up on everything before Thanksgiving comes around later this month.

Last month, I received the third book in the Chicory Inn series, titled Another Way Home by author Deborah Raney. Once again the series centers on Grant and Audrey Whitman, a couple that is trying to run their own bed & breakfast, but their adult children's problems keep interfering with their lives.

Their middle daughter, Danae, and her husband, Dallas, have been trying to start a family for years, but God hasn't blessed them with a child yet. While Danae is considering adoption, Dallas doesn't even want to discuss the topic. Her dream is to fill her days raising their children, but since that's not on the table anymore, she volunteers at a shelter for for abused women that just opened in town. As she gets to know the women there, she starts to wonder if God is nudging her life in a different direction.

The Berenstain Bears: The Very First Christmas 
by Jan & Mike Berenstain
Publisher: ZonderKidz
Pub. Date: October 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0310751021
Pages: 24
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Christmas is less than two-months away and a few of the cable channels are already playing holiday themed movies. Many of these movies as well as countless books feature Santa Claus and elves. While I have nothing against Old Saint Nick, many kids can get confused about what the really meaning of Christmas is.

Now available to own in bookstores is the picture book The Berenstain Bears: The Very First Christmas by the late Jan Berenstain and her son Mike Bernestain (whom has taken over the Berenstain Bears series).

The book begins with the Bear cubs (Brother, Sister and Honey) asking  Papa to read them the story of Christmas from the storybook Bible. From there he tells them the about the birth of Jesus. The entire book is written in a similar style of the other Berenstain Bears' titles, so young readers can easily understand it. The story is accompanied by beautiful illustrations.

Sanjay and Craig: Fight The Future With Flavor!
by Eric Esquivel
Publisher: PAPERCUTZ
Pub. Date: September 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-1629913025
Pages: 52
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Sanjay and Craig debuted on Nickelodeon in 2013 and has become one of it's most popular cartoons. The series centers on a  Sanjay Patel, a 12-year old boy,  and his talking pet snake, Craig.  Nickelodeon is joined forces with the publishing company PAPERCUTZ to create new graphic novels.

Released back in September is the first comic adventure featuring Sanjay and Craig, titled Sanjay and Craig: Fight The Future With Flavor! Written by Eric Esquivel and featuring illustrations from Sam Spina, James Kaminski and Ryan Jampole, the 52 pages graphic novel contains six exciting adventures - "Fight The Future With Flavor," "Hot Wings From Heck," "Lord Of The Pipes," Alien Buttospy," "The Buttermilk King" and "Rated 'R' For Radical". It also features several short segments of"Tufflips Movie Trailers."

I've only seen a few episodes of the Nickelodeon series and while it didn't exactly appeal to me, it did have plenty of silliness that would attract younger viewers. Since I decided to feature more children books on this blog, I went ahead and agreed to review the Sanjay and Craig: Fight The Future With Flavor! graphic novel.

My love for coffee is no secret on here, so it shouldn't be a much a surprise that I wanted to review the Adrano, Brazil Volcano Coffee from Heirloom Coffee, LLC.

What makes this coffee different from the others that I've tried?

Well, for starters, this a bag of "green" coffee beans, meaning the beans haven't been roasted yet. Adrano is Heirloom Coffee's top specialty coffee. It's made from a blend of  Mundo Novo, Catuaí and Acaiá varieties of Arabica where it's grown on several small estates in the Pocos de Caldas volcanic caldera in Brazil. The soil there is enriched with volcanic minerals and rainforest soil as well as an abundance of nutrition and minerals, giving the coffee beans an unique taste.


I've never personally roasted coffee beans before, but after a quick internet search, I quickly learned how to. While I read about several different methods, I just covered a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and then scattered a handful of the coffee beans in the pan. On medium heat, I heated up the pan and placed a lid on it. Eventually, I started hearing crackling sounds, which means the beans were being roasted.

Besides from candy corn and other sweets that get center our full attention in stores, I almost forgotten about the flavored holiday coffees that are released around this time a year.

I've been under the weather for the past few days and I wasn't in the best spirits on Wednesday afternoon, well, that is until I received a package in the mail that contained a box of 40 single serve coffee cups of Brooklyn Bean Roastery: Pink Pumpkin (pumpkin vanilla flavored coffee) and my mood was somewhat lifted. The cups are compatible with most Keurig K-cup brewers (2.0 included).

Brooklyn Bean Roastery was founded in 2010, a company that offers a wide variety of Keurig-compatible filtered single serve coffee cups. They use a roast2cup process that makes every cup of coffee smooth and rich. Only the high quality 100% Arabica Coffee beans are used.

While I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, I do like pumpkin flavor coffees and creams. It was nice to sit down last week and drink a warm mug of pumpkin flavored coffee. No, the coffee isn't pink. It's only called that to represent breast cancer awareness.

A Respectable Actress
by Dorothy Love
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pub. Date: October 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1401687595
Pages: 384
Buy Link: Amazon
Blog Tour:litfusegroup.com/author/dlove

Review:

While Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, there is plenty of time to squeeze a few good novels. During this time, I'm planning on featuring reviews on some exciting novels that you might enjoy reading. Today, I'm featuring the historical-romance A Respectable Actress by Dorothy Love.

Set in the 1870, A Respectable Actress centers on the famous actress India Hartley. Just before her second performance at the Savannah's Southern Plalace, her co-star, Arthur Sterling, is shot and killed right on stage in front of the audience. Shockingly, India is accused and arrested for killing him.

Philip Sinclair, a widower from Savannah, is hired to defend India by her benefactor. While most lawyers would never even think about accepting a case like this, he's strapped for and could use the money to help fund his law practice and to rebuild his plantation that is on St. Simons Island. If he successfully defends the lovely actress, it'll bring him many new clients.

Philip works his magic on the judge and gets India out of jail. In fear of  threats of lynch mobs, he decides the safest place for her to stay until the trial is at his plantation, Indigo Point. Of  course this is a love story, so there are sparks between the two. However, Philip isn't quite over the death of his wife.