Our Town Book Reviews

Thursday, March 11, 2021

How to Improve Study Habits

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions.

Christine Reidhead will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

See below or Click on "read more" to sign up for the Giveaway.

For students 13 through college graduation, Christine Reidhead's guide to building study skills is an extremely important book for those who want to secure their future through good grades.Too many students' grades are falling, especially in a time when regular classrooms cannot fully open. Parents everywhere are at a loss regarding what to do with their responsibilities in the face of the increasing downturn in their children's grades. It seems as though, with the advent of social media, the attention of a lot of students has been shifted from their books to their smartphones or computers. Apart from social media, blame has also been put on a decline in the interest of students regarding education in general. Students, at the moment, do not have the motivation or zeal, as it seems, to even study.

Good study habits, or skills, are solutions to the problems experienced by students. This has been true for a long time, but the world is changing rapidly, which also means that the tools employed during study have to be changed in order to keep up...

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions.

Tracey Szynkaruk will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

See below or Click on "read more" to sign up for the Giveaway.

Join Theo, a young boy who, with the help of his teacher and classmates, is working to reduce the need for plastic use in day-to-day life. From grocery stores to restaurants, read along to see how plastic use can be minimized to help make a plastic-free world for you and me!

Ways You Could Be Sabotaging your Training

Non-Fiction

Date Published: Feb 19th, 2021

Are you struggling to train your dog? This book can help!

Written by a certified Dog Trainer this book is designed to offer general dog training troubleshooting. The intent is to identify and address things you might unknowingly be doing that can sabotage your best training efforts and hinder your beloved companion’s progress.

The author, Tammy L. Hein brings up the specific issues she’s found to be the most common over her decade of dog training experience...

Historical fiction, women’s fiction, biographical fiction

Date Published: March 8, 2021

Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers

A promise keeps them apart until WWII threatens to destroy their love forever

Fonzaso Italy, between two wars

Nina Argenta doesn’t want the traditional life of a rural Italian woman. The daughter of a strong-willed midwife, she is determined to define her own destiny. But when her brother emigrates to America, she promises her mother to never leave.

When childhood friend Pietro Pante briefly returns to their mountain town, passion between them ignites while Mussolini forces political tensions to rise. Just as their romance deepens, Pietro must leave again for work in the coal mines of America. Nina is torn between joining him and her commitment to Italy and her mother.

As Mussolini’s fascists throw the country into chaos and Hitler’s Nazis terrorise their town, each day becomes a struggle to survive greater atrocities. A future with Pietro seems impossible when they lose contact and Nina’s dreams of a life together are threatened by Nazi occupation and an enemy she must face alone…

A gripping historical fiction novel, based on a true story and heartbreaking real events.

Spanning over two decades, Under the Light of the Italian Moon is an epic, emotional and triumphant tale of one woman’s incredible resilience during the rise of fascism and Italy’s collapse into WWII.

Dark Energy

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Addison Brae will be awarding a copy of the ebook and song titled Dark Energy, along with a Dark Energy bottle opener (opener is for US Only) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

See below to sign up for the Giveaway.

I had just started over with a new career, boyfriend, and confidence after escaping a vicious murder

investigation. When Pinkie’s arrest leaves me struggling to run his two bars, I vow not to let my mentor and friend go down for something he didn’t do. Now I’m forced to trust the cops, people who hurt me, and known criminals, but will it be enough to free Pinkie and save my life?

BOOK TRAILER: https://youtu.be/tK0s7Y6FP2Y

SONG PURCHASE LINK: Dark Energy by Brian Miller: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Energy/dp/B08MWWXXZW/

Omerta

Howard Drew Novels, Book 1

Mystery, Police Procedural,

Date Published: March 9, 2021

Publisher: Fedora Press

Fans of iconic LAPD homicide Detective Harry Bosch will feel right at home with homicide Detective Howard “Howie” Drew. Don’t miss Omerta, the first book in a brand new police procedural series set in the City of Angels.

For a homicide detective, a day on the job means hunting killers while trying not to get killed. If you’re a homicide detective in Los Angeles, it also means dealing with the most overwrought, desperate, and deluded criminals anywhere. When you’re a brand new homicide detective spending your days and nights in the gritty underbelly of the city that never sleeps with a tetchy veteran murder cop for a partner, you must keep your cool and your wits about you when the bodies start hitting the floor.

Putting the pieces together when someone shoots to death execution-style a semi-famous Hollywood screenwriter with mob ties is Howard Drew, recently promoted to Detective II and transferred into West Bureau homicide. Just when Drew and his veteran murder cop partner and mentor Detective Rudy Ortega think they are making progress in solving the murder, the leads dry up and the case goes cold. But on the mean streets of LA, there are always plenty more murders to investigate.

Drew and Ortega quickly pivot to investigating the rape-murder of a twenty-two-year-old stripper and aspiring actress. They spend their days chasing down leads in West LA while at the same time battling the inefficient LAPD bureaucracy and trying to coax the support they need to solve cases from the department’s overworked and understaffed Scientific Investigation Division. From their squad room at West Bureau, they see the glamour city for what it is: a sprawling metropolis where the tedious is dangerous and the dangerous is tedious.

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Aubrey Wynne will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A seductive Welsh earl on the brink of ruin. A wealthy cit in search of a hero.

Miss Evelina Franklin reads too many romance novels. She’s certain a handsome duke—or dashing highwayman—is in her future. In the meantime, Evie entertains herself with the admirers vying for her fortune.

The Earl of Brecken needs cash. His late father left their Welsh estate in ruin, and his mother will not let him rest until it is restored to its former glory. Notorious for his seductive charm, he searches the ballrooms for a wealthy heiress. His choices are dismal until he meets Miss Franklin. Guileless and gorgeous with an enormous dowry, she seems the answer to his prayers. Until his conscience makes an unexpected appearance.

Literary Fiction

Date Published: August 26, 2020 (ebook); September 22, 2020 (print)

Publisher: Propertius Press

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Tolan has always let her mother have one secret — how she got that scar on her face — playing along with her mother’s game of inventing outlandish tales to explain the wound away. But when she finds a manuscript on her mother’s computer that promises to reveal the true story, Tolan only hesitates for a moment before curiosity compels her to read on.

Related by Murder

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jo A. Hiestand will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

See below to sign up for the Giveaway.

about the book...

From the moment ex-police detective Michael McLaren arrives at his friend’s house, he’s plunged into a nightmare of a case. Two men, hanged a year apart, each killed on a Good Friday. A barrister. A solicitor. Related careers. Related by murder. Related motives?

Pottery shards, a torn newspaper article, and biscuits are found in each man’s pocket. What do they signify? And the blackmail letters Melanie receives… Are they related to the murders, or are they separate, terrifying in their own way?

Professions, calendar date, McLaren’s attack. Could it all be entwined? Or is the motive for murder something else, something so secret that keeping it is worth attempting a third one?