The Summer Culinary Giveaway! 1 Lucky Winner (RV$400)

***Celticlady's Reviews is pleased to share with you The Summer Culinary Giveaway! Good Luck!***

Deliciously Savvy Is Hosting A Fabulous Culinary Giveaway and This One Is Geared For Summer! There Are Several Fabulous Items That 1 Lucky Winner Will Receive with a total RV of $400! So Far The Prize Value Is At $400! Enter Today & Good Luck!

Sponsored By: Amazing Sponsors Listed Below

Hosted By: Deliciously Savvy

Co-Host By:

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PLUS a Big Thank You To All Of The Fabulous Bloggers Helping To Make This Huge For Our Amazing Readers!

Take a Look At The Sponsors and Prizes Below Valued at $400!

A Capresso Iced Tea Maker #Capresso ($60 RV)

Read My Review HERE

EasyRoll- Parchment Paper With Sturdy Box ($16 RV)

MIU COLOR’S® Crystal Glass Water Bottle #MiuColor ($46 RV)

Read My Review HERE

The Perfect Portion Cookbook ($30 RV)

Best Deluxe Salt and Pepper Grinder Set of 2 ($40 RV)

Read My Review HERE

Gear Ultimate Grill Mats - Set of 2 BBQ Mats ($30 RV)

Read My Review HERE

BTipsy Professional Cocktail Bar Tool Set ($15 RV)

Maestro of Comfort's Watermelon Slicer Corer & Server Tongs ($21 RV)

Fermented Foods at Every Meal Cookbook ($22 RV)

Gourmet Product Assortment from Minerva Dairy ($35 RV)

Assortment of Amish Butters & Cheeses

$20 Gift Cards to Bruegger's Bagels! The best bagels ever!

Read My Review HERE

Digital Recipe Album (50 recipes Digitized for $50 RV)

Dish Dish Bamboo Cutting Board ($15 RV)

And Now The Giveaway!!!

Giveaway Dates ~ 07/25 9AM EST until 08/22 11:59PM EST

Entrants must be 18 years old to enter and giveaway is open to US residents only.

Any Questions Email Me At mcushing7 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

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in the United States. Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter.

This giveaway will end at 11:59PM (EST) on 08/22/2016.

Good Luck! Enter Below

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Welcome to the Back To School Zoku's Green Travel Tumbler Giveaway! @las930 and @ZokuHQ

This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.

 

Celticlady's Reviews is pleased to be part of the Back to School Zoku's Green Travel Tumbler Giveaway!

Check out everything in the Back To School Gift Guide!

Hosted by:

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Sponsor: Zoku

1 Winners

7/25 – 8/14

~~~~~~~~

Zoku

Green Travel Tumbler

$14.99 rv

See review HERE.

No one said you had to wait get yours HERE on Amazon today!

~Special Thanks to all the promoting bloggers, we make an awesome team, Thank you~

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GOOD LUCK!

This giveaway is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. You are not eligible if you have won a prize from the sponsor in the last 12 month. This Giveaway is valid in the United States. Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter. This giveaway event will end at 11:59 PM (EST) 8/14/16. The winners will have 48 hours to email their information back to las93063 at gmail dot com or a new winner will be drawn, you may want to put this email address as safe as it could go to spam. The sponsors are responsible for shipping of the above prizes. No blog associated with this contest are responsible for prize fulfillment. If you would like to be a sponsor in a giveaway like this please email Laura Smith at las930 (at)gmail (dot) com or contact the owner of the blog you are entering on!

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Welcome to the Back To School Snack in the Box & Drink in the Box Giveaway! @las930 @PrecidioDesign

This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.

Celticlady's Reviews welcomes you to the Back To School Snack in the Box & Drink in the Box Giveaway!

Check out everything in the Back To School Gift Guide!

Hosted by:

Michigan Saving and More

Co Hosted by:

IMHO Views, Reviews and Giveaways

Sponsor: Precidio Design

1 Winners

7/25 – 8/14

~~~~~~~~

Precidio Design

Drink in the Box

$11.99 rv

See review HERE.

No one said you had to wait get yours HERE on Amazon today!

~~~~~~~~

Snack in the Box

$12.99 rv

See review HERE.

No one said you had to wait get yours HERE on Amazon today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

This giveaway is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. You are not eligible if you have won a prize from the sponsor in the last 12 month. This Giveaway is valid in the United States. Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter. This giveaway event will end at 11:59 PM (EST) 8/14/16. The winners will have 48 hours to email their information back to las93063 at gmail dot com or a new winner will be drawn, you may want to put this email address as safe as it could go to spam. The sponsors are responsible for shipping of the above prizes. No blog associated with this contest are responsible for prize fulfillment. If you would like to be a sponsor in a giveaway like this please email Laura Smith at las930 (at)gmail (dot) com or contact the owner of the blog you are entering on!

We “LOVE” it if you like us!

Entry-Form

Seaside Lovers by Melissa Foster Release Tour! @MoBPromo #MoBPromos @Melissa_Foster

SEASIDE LOVERS: GRAYSON LACROUX

Love in Bloom: Seaside Summers

Candidate for Murder by Lauren Carr Spotlight! @TheMysteryLadie @iReadBookTours #Vote4Gnarly

Book Description:

It’s election time in Spencer, Maryland, and the race for mayor is not a pretty one. In recent years, the small resort town has become divided between the local year-round residents who have enjoyed their rural way of life and the city dwellers moving into their mansions, taking over the town council, and proceeding to turn Deep Creek Lake into a closed gate community—complete with a host of regulations for everything from speed limits to clothes lines.

When the political parties force-feed two unsavory mayoral nominees on the town residents, Police Chief David O’Callaghan decides to make a statement—by nominating Gnarly, Mac Faraday’s German shepherd, to run as mayor of Spencer!

What starts out as a joke turns into a disaster when overnight Gnarly becomes the front-runner—at which point his political enemies take a page straight out of Politics 101. What do you do when you’re behind in a race? Dig up dirt on the front-runner, of course.

Seemingly, someone is not content to rest with simply embarrassing the front runner by publicizing his dishonorable discharge from the United States Army, but to throw in a murder for good measure. With murder on the ballot, Mac Faraday, and the gang—including old friends from past cases—dive into clear Gnarly’s name, catch a killer, and save Spencer!

Author's Bio:

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries. The twelfth installment in the Mac Faraday Mystery series, Candidate for Murder will be released June 2016.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with Lauren: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Daddy Dearest by Paul Southern Book Review! @psouthernauthor

An estranged father’s weekend with his beloved five-year-old daughter turns into a nightmare when she gets into the lift of a city centre tower block and goes down without him. She vanishes without a trace. It sets off a race against time, and a nationwide manhunt, to find her. As the police investigation closes in, suspicion falls on those closest to her - with devastating consequences. Daddy Dearest is a terrifying story of love, obsession and psychological meltdown.

'My daughter has always had a thing about lifts. There’s something about the thrill of pressing a button and seeing the lift doors close which excites her imagination. It terrifies me. Every time she walks in, I imagine it’s the last time I’ll see her. What if she hits the button before I get there? What if the lift doors close and I can’t get her out? It drives me nuts. There are eight floors in the Sears building, nine if you count the basement, and the lift is fast: more like a fairground ride, really. It does top to bottom in twelve seconds. I’ve timed it. Taking the stairs, I’ve done it in forty-two. That leaves a gap of thirty seconds. You’d be surprised what can happen in that time. I was.

‘An enthralling tale, but the genuine mystery involves the protagonist, a spellbinding enigma from beginning to end.’

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-southern/daddy-dearest/

 

‘DADDY DEAREST’s unreliable narrator makes this psychological thriller a compelling read.’

http://indiereader.com/2016/05/a-suspect-narrator-recounts-the-story-of-a-missing-girl-in-daddy-dearest/

 

‘Absolutely phenomenal.’

https://napoleonsplit.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/book-26-daddy-dearest/#more-3193

 

‘Paul Southern has a knack for taking humanity and presenting it on a truth-colored torture tool with a dash of added realism and gag-reflex inducing details...Well done Paul Southern, you wrote the whole world with its good and bad and evil and innocent into one book.’

https://liisthinks.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/daddy-dearest-by-paul-southern/

 

‘A fabulous psychological thriller! Everything about this book is compelling.’

https://alinefromabook.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/book-review-daddy-dearest-by-paul-southern/

 

‘The story is compelling and is told in a unique way.’

http://ronhervey.com/tag/paul-southern/

 

‘Just when you think you’ve worked it out, the author throws yet another curve ball at you, completely knocking you off kilter.This was a great read.'

http://ialwaysbelievedinfutures.com/daddy-dearest-paul-southern/

 

‘Stirred many emotions...I want to share it all.’

http://espinolaeditor.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/coming-soonbook-review-daddy.html

Amazon

The Author

Following an induced labour some time in the 1960s (due date: Halloween night), I had my subscription to a normal life revoked by itinerant parents, who moved from city to city. Lived in Liverpool, Belfast, London, and Leeds, then escaped to university, where I nearly died of a brain haemorrhage. After an unexpected recovery, formed an underground indie group (Sexus). Met the lead singer through standing on a bee. Made immediate plans to become rich and famous, but ended up in Manchester. Shared a house with mice, cockroaches, and slugs; shared the street with criminals. Five years later, hit the big time with a Warners record deal. Concerts at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Melody Maker front cover, Smash Hits Single of the Week, Radio 1 and EastEnders. 

Mixed with the really rich and famous. Then mixed with lawyers. Ended up back in Manchester, broke. Got a Ph.D. in English (I am the world's leading authority on Tennyson's stage plays), then wrote my first novel, The Craze, based on my experiences of the Muslim community. 

Immediately nominated to the Arena X Club (the name Arena magazine gave to a select group of creative, UK-based men responsible for shaping the way their readers lived and enjoyed their lives). Wrote a second book, Brown Boys in Chocolate, which predicted the London bombings. Fell foul of the censors and subsequently gagged by the press. Got ITV interested in a story on honour killings and inter-racial marriages and was commissioned to write a screenplay (Pariah) based on my life story. ITV balked at the content. Subsequently, trod the Wasteland before finding the grail again: a book deal with children's publisher, Chicken House. 

Killing Sound, a YA horror set on the London Underground, was published by them in September 2014. The book, originally written for older teens (16+) and adults, was censoriously edited by the publishers to fit a much younger demographic, and inevitably failed to reach either market; the grail proved elusive and I returned to writing something it was impossible to dilute. Daddy Dearest, a dark, psychological thriller, will be released in 2016. 

http://www.paulsouthern.org/
Twitter



My Thoughts

At first, I had a difficult time getting into the story. It is written in a much different style than I am used to. Very wordy and a lot of his history with his ex-wife and other people in his life. 

This unnamed man is an estranged father of a little girl who he finds is going to go out of the country with her mother. He panics, thinking that he will not be able to see her and comes up with a plan. The plan is, his daughter goes missing, at least that is what the reader is led to believe. A police investigation ensues and the lies begin. 

Like I said, I had a tough time at first but I am glad I persevered, the further along I got into the story the more immersed I was. I just had to see how far the father would take his story. At times heartbreaking, at times pretty scary, it is amazing how lies have a way of growing, causing a domino effect. This is definitely a psychological thriller to read. Lots of plot twists! I enjoyed reading this book more than I thought I would.

I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

Visceral by Adam Thielen Book Spotlight!

Matthias is a listless vampire enforcer missing a decade of his life from before the turning. Tamra is a warden protecting the world from mages, and mages from the world. Kate is a neuro; a hacker who gave up part of her humanity for powerful synaptic processing. Taq is a mage of astounding talent yearning for love and freedom. 

Vampires have few absolute laws. Firstly, never murder a brother nightstalker. Secondly, never turn a mage. When an ancient evil is unleashed upon the world, the vampire council turns to their trusted enforcement handler Frank Kerwin, and his agent Matthias Trent, to discreetly clean house. Frank quickly assembles a team, sending them on a suicide mission against a monster that feels no pain, fear, or remorse. 

Enter a world transformed by a great economic collapse into a corporatocracy governed by executives, their boards, and appointed councils. A world where man has rekindled his ability to draw from the ethereal plane and subjugate the laws of nature. Where vampires, long in hiding, have emerged to carve a place within civilization. A world ripe for the taking by those with the right resources. 

Visceral is a violent and often bloody delve into a cyberpunk world that does not give you a chance to catch your breath. Filled with dark satire and occasional humor, Visceral is a novel of action and drama taking place in the gritty future, present day, and even the old west. With a climax both satisfying and appalling, this cyberpunk jaunt will kindle your love of serious adult fiction.

Amazon
Goodreads

The Author

I am in my mid-thirties, and was in my early thirties when I started this work. It is the third or fourth novel I started, and the only one I've finished. If at first you don't succeed...

I went to school for Philosophy and earn my pay as computer tech support. My inspiration for writing started at an early age. I was exposed to Orson Scott Card and Isaac Asimov while in middle school and have been an aspiring storyteller since the age of twelve. One of my first projects was a book adaptation of Final Fantasy 6, yes back when it was a current game.

The Burnt Fox by Neil Grimmett Book Spotlight!

Book Details File Size: 2245 KB Print Length: 212 pages Publisher: Peach Publishing (June 20, 2016) Publication Date: June 20, 2016 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

‘It really is this place and not us. There’s a dark power in nature here. Some residue left over from its great, cruel past.’ 

With an overwhelming desire to escape from the council estate and fearful for his marriage, frustrated author Eliot decides to move his wife, Donna and Son, Bradley to the countryside. He takes a job at the grand and sprawling Cloothill estate. Eliot does his best to fit in while working for the aristocratic Compton family. However, it quickly becomes apparent that country life may not be as idyllic as he hoped. 

Eliot and Donna’s marital troubles are exacerbated when farm worker Tobias sets his sights on Donna and Eliot begins to fixate on the Compton’s young au pair, Rebecca. The couple gradually begin to lose sight of themselves as life at Cloothill consumes them. 

Unflinching and sexually charged, The Burnt Fox is a startling depiction of the unsavoury side of life in rural England.



Goodreads

Amazon

Neil Grimmett was born in Birmingham. After being expelled from school at 14, he spent the next decade on the road and in recording studios playing the drums with various rock bands. He also worked making high explosives at a top secret establishment for the Ministry of Defence; as a gamekeeper for minor aristocracy; as a professional handler of show dogs; and a teacher of creative literature. 

During his lifetime he had over eighty five short stories published. In the UK by among others: London Magazine, Stand, Panurge, Iron, Ambit, Postscripts Magazine, Pretext etc. Australia, Quadrant, South Africa, New Contrast. Plus stories in the leading journals of Singapore, India, France, Canada, and the USA, where he has appeared in Fiction, The Yale Review, DoubleTake, The southern Humanities Review, Green Mountains Review, Descant, The Southern Review and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He has appeared online in Blackbird, Plum Ruby Review, Tatlin's Tower, Web Del Sol, In Posse Review, m.a.g., Word Riot, Blue Moon Review, 3AM, Gangway, Eclectica,The Cortland Review, Segue, The Dublin Quarterly , Ducts, Sugar Mule, Mysterical E, Thuglit and over thirty others. 

His stories have also appeared in the anthologies: ENGLAND CALLING, BOOK OF VOICES and Italy’s ISBN’s Top International Stories. In addition, he also won the Write On poetry award, 6 Oppenheim John Downes Awards, 7 major British Arts Council Awards, a Royal Society of Authors award and was awarded a major grant from the Royal Literary Fund. His first thriller, 

THE THRESHING CIRCLE, was published by Lake Union in May 2015. Other works published by Neil Grimmett include THE HOARD, THE MUD DANCE, THE BESTOWING SUN and THE BURNT FOX. 

Sadly, Neil passed away in November, 2015

http://neilgrimmett.com/

The Mud Dance by Neil Grimmett Book Spotlight!

Book Details

• File Size: 3159 KB
• Print Length: 191 pages
• Publisher: Peach Publishing (June 20, 2016)
• Publication Date: June 20, 2016
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• 
  

When drummer Kenny meets piano prodigy Larry at school, they form their first band, The Pretty Horses, which is later renamed Marine Light. From their early gigs in rural Somerset with a taste of regional recognition to international touring, the two friends blaze their way through the rock and roll scene of the 1970s. Propelled by the promise of fame, sex, and drugs, the lifestyle begins to take its toll on both of them. Ego trips, hangers on, groupies, and warring band members see Kenny and Larry stretch to breaking point. 

As cracks start to show in their band and their relationship, Kenny is forced to question the character of the person he’s called his best friend and begins to wonder about their uncertain future. Larry has always had a dark side, but how deep does it go? 

Set in the heyday of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath, The Mud Dance follows passionate musicians and friends from their well-intentioned beginnings, through to fame, and beyond.

Amazon

Neil Grimmett was born in Birmingham. After being expelled from school at 14, he spent the next decade on the road and in recording studios playing the drums with various rock bands. He also worked making high explosives at a top secret establishment for the Ministry of Defence; as a gamekeeper for minor aristocracy; as a professional handler of show dogs; and a teacher of creative literature. During his lifetime he had over eighty five short stories published. In the UK by among others: London Magazine, Stand, Panurge, Iron, Ambit, Postscripts Magazine, Pretext etc. Australia, Quadrant, South Africa, New Contrast. Plus stories in the leading journals of Singapore, India, France, Canada, and the USA, where he has appeared in Fiction, The Yale Review, DoubleTake, The southern Humanities Review, Green Mountains Review, Descant, The Southern Review and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He has appeared online in Blackbird, Plum Ruby Review, Tatlin's Tower, Web Del Sol, In Posse Review, m.a.g., Word Riot, Blue Moon Review, 3AM, Gangway, Eclectica,The Cortland Review, Segue, The Dublin Quarterly , Ducts, Sugar Mule, Mysterical E, Thuglit and over thirty others. His stories have also appeared in the anthologies: ENGLAND CALLING, BOOK OF VOICES and Italy’s ISBN’s Top International Stories. In addition, he also won the Write On poetry award, 6 Oppenheim John Downes Awards, 7 major British Arts Council Awards, a Royal Society of Authors award and was awarded a major grant from the Royal Literary Fund. His first thriller, THE THRESHING CIRCLE, was published by Lake Union in May 2015. Other works published by Neil Grimmett include THE HOARD, THE MUD DANCE, THE BESTOWING SUN and THE BURNT FOX. Sadly, Neil passed away in November, 2015

http://neilgrimmett.com/

Goodreads

The Bestowing Sun by Neil Grimmett Book Spotlight!

Book Details File Size: 3039 KB Print Length: 200 pages Publisher: Peach Publishing (June 20, 2016) Publication Date: June 20, 2016 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Set in rural Somerset, England, a family with two grown-up sons, live together in a large farmhouse. 

The brothers are different in every aspect: Richard is a farmer who loves the land whilst William, married with a daughter, is the talented artist with a hot and unpredictable temperament. Their parents, Herbie and Madeline, still play out their games in a unresolved struggle for control. William escapes from his family to Italy to paint but knows he must return and face what he is running away from if he is ever truly to be free. His art is for ‘his escape not internment’. 

Both brothers lust after Selina, full of passions that would never fade or stay hidden, and who eventually marries Richard but secretly believes he had entrapped her when she really wants his brother, having been seduced by his art. 

The complicated relationships of the characters show their loving yet hateful and often destructive facets of their human feelings towards each other and to themselves. Later, for the first time, they see William’s paintings exhibited for sale and realise finally the incredible gift that he has which wipes away the years of hatred and jealousies. 

“The literary equivalent of roots-rock, stylistically stripped-down and perfectly executed” – Matthew Flaming, Word Riot 

“Disarmingly simple, straight talking yet poetic and with a knack for metaphorical description… Like the farmer bearing the pike and the old woman facedown in a puddle, The Bestowing Sun is art.” – Neil Ayres, Fragment Magazine 

“…something that is mighty fine, and promises still more to come…” – Jack Goodstein, Compulsive Reader 

“From the second word onwards, The Bestowing Sun is something worth talking about… Grimmett’s great achievement is writing a beautiful novel which is never pretentious and certainly never lachrymose. Quite the reverse.” – Stuck in a Book 

“Has that timeless quality about it… Excellent.” – Alan Beard

Amazon

Neil Grimmett was born in Birmingham. After being expelled from school at 14, he spent the next decade on the road and in recording studios playing the drums with various rock bands. He also worked making high explosives at a top secret establishment for the Ministry of Defence; as a gamekeeper for minor aristocracy; as a professional handler of show dogs; and a teacher of creative literature. During his lifetime he had over eighty five short stories published. In the UK by among others: London Magazine, Stand, Panurge, Iron, Ambit, Postscripts Magazine, Pretext etc. Australia, Quadrant, South Africa, New Contrast. Plus stories in the leading journals of Singapore, India, France, Canada, and the USA, where he has appeared in Fiction, The Yale Review, DoubleTake, The southern Humanities Review, Green Mountains Review, Descant, The Southern Review and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He has appeared online in Blackbird, Plum Ruby Review, Tatlin's Tower, Web Del Sol, In Posse Review, m.a.g., Word Riot, Blue Moon Review, 3AM, Gangway, Eclectica,The Cortland Review, Segue, The Dublin Quarterly , Ducts, Sugar Mule, Mysterical E, Thuglit and over thirty others. His stories have also appeared in the anthologies: ENGLAND CALLING, BOOK OF VOICES and Italy’s ISBN’s Top International Stories. In addition, he also won the Write On poetry award, 6 Oppenheim John Downes Awards, 7 major British Arts Council Awards, a Royal Society of Authors award and was awarded a major grant from the Royal Literary Fund. His first thriller, THE THRESHING CIRCLE, was published by Lake Union in May 2015. Other works published by Neil Grimmett include THE HOARD, THE MUD DANCE, THE BESTOWING SUN and THE BURNT FOX. Sadly, Neil passed away in November, 2015

http://neilgrimmett.com/

Beyond the Sapphire Gate by R.V.Johnson Book Spotlight!

A family whisked apart. 

Crystalyn discovers a power over symbols when she accidentally activates a curtain of darkness between sapphire obelisks. Ever curious, younger sister Jade, the one person she cares most about having raised after their mother’s disappearance, touches the gateway and vanishes. Fearing for the safety of the sibling she’d always before kept from harm, Crystalyn steps into a strange land infused with magic and those that Use. 

Aided by magic killing her with each use, Crystalyn searches a realm locked in turmoil, her concern for Jade mounting. Though a political Circle of Light made up of mystic users, a Citadel of warlords, and a Hundred Season War block the way; she must go on. 

Equipped with a seemingly useless ability to read auras, Jade embarks on a harrowing journey to escape the Dark Citadel with her life, and more importantly, her soul intact. 

For both Crystalyn and Jade, time is fast flowing away; with far more at stake than they first realize. 

A riveting, original fantasy novel. Book one in the Flow of Power series.

Amazon

R.V. Johnson grew up in USA, Utah wandering through beautiful tranquil forests, exploring the unique alien-like setting of the red rock desert, and climbing the rugged trails of the high Uinta Mountains where mountain goats roam. Indoors, he read from his large library or wrote in his journal.
One can now find him writing and reading outside.

Goodreads
Website

The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin Review! @MahurinPaulette

One of the darkest times in human history was the insane design and execution to rid the world of Jews and “undesirables.” At the hands of the powerful evil madman Adolf Hitler, families were ripped apart and millions were slaughtered. Persecution, torture, devastation, and enduring the unthinkable remained for those who lived. 

This is the story of one woman who lived to tell her story. This is a narrative of how a young beautiful teenager, Helen Stein, and her family were torn asunder, ultimately bringing her to Auschwitz. It was there she suffered heinous indignity at the hands of the SS. It was also there, in that death camp, she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship. 

Written by the award-winning, best-selling author of His Name Was Ben, comes a story of the resilience of the human spirit that will leave you thinking about Helen Stein and The Seven Year Dress for years to come after the last page is shut. 

Amazon

Paulette Mahurin lives with her husband Terry and three dogs, Max, Bella, and Lady Luck in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master's Degree in Science.

While in college, she won awards and was published for her short-story writing. One of these stories, Something Wonderful, was based on the couple presented in His Name Was Ben, which she expanded into the fictionalized novel in 2014. The first week out, His Name Was Ben, made it to top ten books sold in the Amazon Kindle store (topic: health/wellness/cancer). Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction of the year 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine.

Semi-retired, she continues to work part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Ventura County. When she's not writing, she does pro-bono consultation work with women with cancer, works in the Westminister Free Clinic as a volunteer provider, volunteers as a mediator in the Ventura County Courthouse for small claims cases, and involves herself, along with her husband, in dog rescue.

Profits from her books go to help rescue dogs.

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Twitter
Goodreads

My Thoughts

Myra is a young student looking for a room, she is interviewed by an elderly woman, Helen Stein asked a lot of personal questions. Myra debates on whether or not to rent the room but decides that she does need a place that she can afford.

There is a reason behind all of Helen's personal questions she asks of Myra. Finding out that Helen has a number tattooed on her wrist is the clue to Helen's background. Helen tells the story of how she ended up with the tattoo, see, all inmates of the concentration camps are tattooed with numbers and once behind that fencing, are no longer a person, no longer have identities. That is the horror of Nazi Germany and the atrocities that one race of people inflicted on another.

Helen's story starts out in the 1920's, born of a Jewish family, living in Berlin. She was born after the Great War, at a time when Germany was floundering and looking for a leader, they found it in Adolf Hitler. Helen really didn't realize at a young age how the Nazi party was going to affect her and her family and what she was going to lose as a result of one man's hatred of the Jews.With the advent of Kristallnacht, Helen and her family's lives implode into a horrible series of events that find Helen interred at Auschwitz. 

Helen's story is one of many to come out of this terrible time in history, even though this is historical fiction, I could tell by the author's words, that this was a story she wanted to tell with compassion and honesty about a woman who could very well have lived during this time and experienced the atrocities of the fanatics that were the Nazi Party. I enjoyed it immensely.

I received this book for review purposes and my honest opinion.