About the Book:
Lots of people are selling happiness these days as if it were a marketable commodity. But in her hip self-transformation book, Add More ~ing to Your Life, motivational speaker and life coach Gabrielle Bernstein truly shows you how to make happiness a way of life. Ms. Bernstein is bringing happy back.

Designed to bulldoze negative thought patterns and create personal change through positive affirmations, physical activity, and visualization meditations, Gabrielle guides the reader to happiness in 30 days through her dynamic ~ing, a proven method of sharpening one s intuitive senses and activating untapped inspirations.

Gabrielle will prepare you to change your life by accessing a state of flow, helping you connect with your ~ing, your inner guide, and readying you to release your limiting beliefs and to choose happiness.

About the Author:
Recently featured in the New York Times Sunday Styles section as the next generation guru, motivational speaker, life coach and author Gabrielle Bernstein is making her mark. Expanding the lexicon for the next generation, on January 2010, Gabrielle launches her first book Add More ~ing to Your Life – A hip guide to happiness published by QNY.

Gabrielle was just one year out of college, when she co-founded the Women’s Entrepreneurial Network, a non-profit professional organization that connects female entrepreneurs. That same year, Gabrielle incorporated her own boutique public relations company, SparkPlug Communications.

Since 2004 Gabrielle, who has a degree in theater from Syracuse University, has been on the speaking circuit. Her lecture, Falling in Love with Your Future has presented at the Learning Annex, Integral Yoga, Kripalu, Universities nationwide, The Step Up Women’s Network, The Junior Leauges and other venues.

In 2007, she launched the brand Falling in Love with Your Future: A Young Woman’s Guide to Passion and Happiness, which takes the form of books, life coaching, lectures and more. An integral part of the program is the emphasis on guidance and mentors. Gabrielle recently launched her social networking site www.HerFuture.com for young women to find mentors.

Gabrielle has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times Sunday Styles, Marie Claire Magazine, Crain’s, NBC10!, WPIX11, NYBTV, Fox Strategy Room, Wall Street Journal, AdWeek, Sirius Satellite Radio, Am-NY and New York Moves Magazine. Gabrielle is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post NY and www.crazysexylife.com. In addition she is a certified intenSati instructor and can also be seen riding around the West Village on a unicycle.

My Review:
Gabrielle Bernstein brought a book to us that hits it hard! It’s an AWESOME book that will get you thinking things through. This book really got me thinking about things in my life, and it made me realize that it’s time for a change in my life. Normally, when I read self-help books I get extremely bored and don’t want to read them completely through. But, Gabrielle’s book really had me hooked, and I loved learning with this book. Being a divorced mom of two, I find my thinking about life in negative perspectives, like “why me” or “when will it stop or change”, but through Gabrielle’s book I have come to terms with my life as it is and I have learned to be happy with the here and now, and to just go with the flow. This is definitely a 5 star self help book that I think EVERY woman, young-old-and-in-between, should definitely take the time to read!

*This book was provided for review courtesy of Tricia at Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc*

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Over the years, Melody Carlson has worn many hats, from pre-school teacher to youth counselor to political activist to senior editor. But most of all, she loves to write! Currently she freelances from her home. In the past eight years, she has published over ninety books for children, teens, and adults–with sales totaling more than two million and many titles appearing on the ECPA Bestsellers List. Several of her books have been finalists for, and winners of, various writing awards. And her “Diary of a Teenage Girl” series has received great reviews and a large box of fan mail.

She has two grown sons and lives in Central Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab retriever. They enjoy skiing, hiking, gardening, camping and biking in the beautiful Cascade Mountains.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Is there room in one little hometown for four very different Lindas to reinvent their lives … together?

Once upon a time in a little town on the Oregon coast lived four Lindas—all in the same first-grade classroom. So they decided to go by their middle names. And form a club. And be friends forever. But that was forty-seven years and four very different lives ago. Now a class reunion has brought them all together in their old hometown—at a crossroads in their lives.

Janie is a high-powered lawyer with a load of grief. Abby is a lonely housewife in a beautiful oceanfront empty nest. Marley is trying to recapture the artistic free spirit she lost in an unhappy marriage. And the beautiful Caroline is scrambling to cope with her mother’s dementia and a Hollywood career that never really happened. Together, they’re about to explore the invigorating reality that even the most eventful life has second acts … and friendship doesn’t come with a statue of limitations.

If you would like to read the first chapter of As Young As We Feel, go HERE.

Watch the Video:

My Review:
Book 1 in The Four Lindas series from Melody Carlson, As Young As We Feel was different for me. I love Melody’s books, normally, as she writes books with strong plots and characters. However, this one just disappointed me. I think it was too jumpy between the characters and too much conversation between them. I wasn’t captured from the beginning and held to the end. There just wasn’t that “oomph” that her other books have.

While I didn’t feel a connection to the characters or overwhelmed with being captured, I still give this 4 stars, for being filled with Christian attributes and written by an over all talented writer. This book would more than likely capture the hearts of women who had best friends growing up but was seperated as the years went on, and women who are at the stage in life that reminiscing would be for them. I will be reading the other books in this series, however, because I feel that just because I didn’t completely like this book, that’s not to say the next book won’t capture me.

About the Book:
Life in Beldon Grove on the Illinois frontier in the 1840s isn’t easy. For Ellie Craig, the graves of her three infant children make it unbearably lonely, despite the love of her husband Matthew. When she uncovers a family secret that suggests she may not be as alone as she thought, Ellie is determined to find the truth.

Meanwhile, Matthew Craig faces controversy in the church he pastors when a man arrives in town claiming to be both a minister and the son of the town’s founder. Will Matthew find the courage to reclaim his church? Or will he return to itinerant preaching, leaving Ellie even more alone than before?

Book 2 in the At Home in Beldon Grove series, The Promise of Morning will touch your soul with themes of overcoming tragedy, finding strength to meet daunting challenges, and trusting your heart to love again.

About the Author:
Ann Shorey is the author of The Edge of Light and has published selections in the Cup of Comfort series and in Chicken Soup for the Grandma’s Soul.

My Review:
Oh my goodness, I loved this book! I wasn’t lost in this story, even though it was book 2. I was immediately captured from page one and held on to the very last page. Ann Shorey’s writing talent is absolutely amazing!

This story, from the beginning, is an emotional one, filled with heart ache and sadness, that I, myself, felt as if I was Ellie. She had a loving husband and children but she endured terrible tradegy. On top of that, she feels all alone, being an orphan and an only child while growing up. I felt my heart being tugged towards Ellie so many times. I can truly feel her pain and a part of her life.

While this book has lots of sadness and heartache, it’s also full of happiness and love, not to mention, some secrets along the way, making this a book that will take you on an emotional twisty roller coaster! Learning to trust in God and be able to accept His will is an emotional, powerful lesson woven in the lines of this fantastic book! You’ll turn page after page and before you know you will be at the end of this historical, lovely, heart capturing story.

Highly recommended with 5 star praises to all those historical lovers! I look forward ,with great anticipation, to the release of book 3, To Number The Stars.

You can purchase your copy of this book by clicking here.

~Available March 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group~

*This book was provided for review by Revell, a division of BakerPublishing Group*

And the lucky winner is (sorry for the delay!)…..

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

35               Katie!!!

The winner has been notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond with their snail mail or I will draw a new winner! Thanks to all who entered and encouraged Amy!!! She’s a sweet lady and a wonderfully talented author! If you didn’t win my giveaway for her newest book, be sure and stop by her blog for another chance to win–enter here!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Melanie Beroth Dobson is the author of the inspirational novels Together for Good (2006), Going for Broke (2007), The Black Cloister (2008), Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana (2009), Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa (2010), Refuge on Crescent Hill (2010), and The Silent Order (2010) as well as the co-author of Latte for One and Loving It! A Single Woman’s Guide to Living Life to Its Fullest (2000).

Prior to launching Dobson Media Group in 1999, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family where she was responsible for the publicity of events, products, films, and TV specials. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master’s degree in communication from Regent University. She has worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for fifteen years including two years as a publicist for The Family Channel.

Melanie and her husband, Jon, met in Colorado Springs in 1997 at Vanguard Church. Jon works in the field of computer animation. Since they’ve been married, the Dobsons have relocated numerous times including stints in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Berlin, and Southern California. These days they are enjoying their new home in the Pacific Northwest.

Jon and Melanie have adopted their two daughters —Karly (6) and Kinzel (5). When Melanie isn’t writing or entertaining their girls, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, traveling, hiking, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Times are hard in 1894. Desperate for work, former banker Jacob Hirsch rides the rails west from Chicago with his four-year-old daughter, Cassie. When a life-threatening illness strands the pair in Homestead, Iowa, the local Amana villagers welcome the father and daughter into their peaceful society. Liesel, a young Amana woman, nurses Cassie back to health, and the Homestead elders offer Jacob work. But Jacobs growing interest in Liesel complicates his position in the Amanas. Will he fight to stay in the only place that feels like home, even if it means giving up the woman he loves? Or will Liesel leave her beloved community to face the outside world with Jacob and Cassie at her side?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa, go HERE.
My Review:
This is my third Love Finds You book, and I am quite pleased with it! I love this collection of wonderful stories by amazing authors. This one happens to bring us to the Amana colonies in Iowa. I have heard of Amish and Mennonites but this is the first I have heard of the Amanas. I learned alot about the Amanas through this book and while there many many differences, there are some similarities to that of the Amish. It was truly fun getting to know a new group of people!
 
This story is filled with sadness and with happiness. Jacob is a widowed father trying to protect is ill daughter, Cassie. He seeks help in the Amana Colonies and there he meets Liesel. Liesel struggles with many uncertainities and I could feel all her pain and sadness as if I was Liesel. I became friends with her and with Jacob and little Cassie. I didn’t want to say good bye to this wonderfully blended characters, but sadly, I had to.
 
I highly recommend this Love Finds You book with 5 stars! It is filled with God and a message of trust, friendship and love. You’ll fall in love with the town of Homestead and the wonderful characters, as well as the amazing writing talent of Melanie Dobson. A definite must read!