Review of Silver Smoke by Monica Leonelle

The first book in the Seven Halos series, Silver Smoke is a fantasy novel by Monica Leonelle for young adults. Set in Honolulu, Hawaii, a place already fantastical to many mainland readers, we meet the heroine, aggressive and slightly reckless fifteen-year-old Brie van Rossum, in the midst of mourning her mother's death. As she struggles for answers about the strange circumstances regarding her mother's death and being the daughter of a rock star, she must also avoid confrontations with the paparazzi who are waiting to catch a possible breakdown on camera.
One of these confrontations ends miserably in a car accident involving her, her brother Pilot, and his best friend, Rykken Camacho, but Brie sees something she knows isn't right. She sees what she believes is her mother on one of the paparazzo's bikes and soon makes a discovery that changes her life—she's a Hallow, a descendent of archangels with supernatural powers like her mother. She discovers others like herself—girls she has known since her moving to the islands. They begin to train her and under their close eye, she prepares herself to embark on a journey to uncover her mother's potentially fatal secret. However, she isn't without enemies—the New Order, a group of Hallows that wants her family dead and has been hunting and killing them for years. And not too long after the accident, her brother meets a mysterious girl that introduces a whole new set of questions affecting Brie's life as a Hallow.
In her writing, Leonelle has a certain grace about how she develops the story through her use of multiple viewpoints, using them to build on each other and presents them quite easily as intertwined but individual stories. Although when she does finally bring these stories together as a whole, it's at times not with the best of ease, but doing this is difficult for any writer and is an art in itself. While Leonelle's strength lies in expression through dialogue, she does leave a little something to be desired in the area of character development through description in the first part of the book, in places I find it perhaps necessary. However, she makes up for this in the latter part of the story. Also, I find it interesting and enjoyable that instead of using the already well established pantheon of archangels and –demons, she reinvents the pantheon and its mythology, making it new in the minds of those already familiar with the stories. There's also the reoccurring themes of fighting one's roots and one's broken family, betrayal, love, consequence, and vengeance. While the book doesn't necessarily provide answers, it provides something relatable for the reader, chronicling the ups and downs of Brie's new life and her self-discovery—situations not unlike those in "real life," yet magnified by ten. I like where Leonelle takes the book and the point at which she ends the story—it'll be interesting to see where she takes the series.

Review by Diana Reed

Review of Miraculous Moments by Elissa Al-Chokhachy

Miraculous Moments ISBN 978-0-7387-2122-4 by Elissa Al-Chokhacy is a collection of stories she gathered during her work as a hospice nurse. In her role as a hospice nurse Elissa was often conffrounted with caregivers who desperately needed to know that their terminally ill loved one will live on. Elissa often told grieving individuals the story of an after death visit she received from her cousin, Stefan.

"Physical death," says Elissa, "does not have to mean the end of a loving relationship. Desceased loved ones", she assures us, "Can continue to send us love, just as we send love to them."

Miraculous Moments can't help but be comforting as story after story documents experiences that convince bereaved individuals and health care professionals that life coninutes after death. I found myself crying sometimes as I read this book, but I was tremendously reassured that life and love go on. I think this would be a great book to pass along to anyone you know who is grieving the loss of a love. The book is available at Amazon. Watch for our radio interview with Elissa on March 1 at 3pm MT on DreamtimeRadio.com.

Review of 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More by Stever Robbins

9 Steps to Work Less and Do More by Stever Robbins, ISBN 978-0-312-22621-5 published by St. Martin's Griffin is the type of book I always pick up because I know that even one really good idea will be worth the cost of the book. This book was packed with good tips.

He lists some of the best right on the back cover such as: Speed-Dating your tasks. You can face anything if it's just for three minutes: schedule small, finite periods of time for those tasks that seem too overwhelming to get started. Or his suggestion that you give technology a performance review. Our smart phones, PDAs, and computer Stevers point out often makes less work in one area while making much more in others. He suggests you review your technology to make sure it's delivering on its promise. And my favorite of all his suggestions was to cut out small talk. He doesn't mean you quit talking to people, but that you talk to them about meaningful subjects rather than the weather etc.

A suggestion I implemented immediately was to divide my week into focus days and task days. On a task day I run errands, make calls, do filing, all that little time consuming stuff. Then on my focus days I'm free to really focus on my projects. Another suggestion I loved was sending my to do items to myself by email with the task as the subject line. Since I compulsively check my email this will help keep those tasks in front of me.

I know that this book is one I will keep going back to to see if some of the other suggestions might be just what I need. I'm trying to schedule Stever on Dreamtime Radio for an interview, so watch my schedule at JuliaWiddop.com.

Review of Erase Negativity and Embrace the Magic Within by Sally Marks

Erase Negativity and Embrace the Magic Within, ISBN 1452850771 is self published by authors, Sally Marks and Jacqueline Howard. The book is a practical guide on how to reduce negativity. From meth addicts to multi-millionaires, the book offers powerful experiences of individuals who have faced dramatic challenges, but did not lose hope. Using these compelling biographies, as well as practical advice and simple exercises, the reader is guided on an internal journey toward adopting a more joyful way to live.

The book is full of stories of people who changed their lives around and deveoped a positive atttiude which enabled them to overcome their situations. I found these stories to be inspiring and some made me examine my own negativity.

The book also has exercises and tips to help in this process. Sally assures me it will improve all aspects of your life including your dreams.We will be discussing the book with author Sally Marks on DreamtimeRadio.com on February 10 at 3 pm MT. I hope you will join us and call in with any questions you might have for Sally.

Review of The Losing of Gordon by Joni Aldrich

The Losing of Gordon by Joni Aldrich was published by Cancer Lifetime Publications in 2009, ISBN 1-4392-6493-7 is a guide for people who have lost a loved one. The author lost her husband to a rare form of cancer in 2006 and wrote this book as a help to others in grief.

A quote from her preface sums up the message of the book. "When a loved one dies, your house is blown apart by circumstances that were out of your control. And this hurricane won't dissipate in mere hours. You have to work to build a new foundation. Uncertainty, insecurity and change are constant companions. You may suffer from depression and stress. Always remember that your destiny is within you, and you are part of God's plan."

The book is a personal message to all who have lost loved ones, but Joni seems to have a special spot in her heart for widows. Interspersed between chapters are Wall of Dedication tributes to special women who have lost their husbands and rebuilt their lives.

Each chapter of the book begins with a letter to Gordon. These letters are poignant and emotionally wrenching, but help the reader to see a way to cope with his or her own grief. More than once I cried when reading the letters to Gordon, but I realized it might help me to write to my lost loved one.

At the end of each chapter is a short coping tip. Sometimes you can't read or concentrate, so just flipping through the pages and reading in short bursts helps. Joni went on to write other books about coping with cancer and grief which I am looking forward to reading.

Please join me at DreamtimeRadio.com February 24 at 3pm Mountain Time when I will be visiting with Joni on air about her books and the rebuilding of her life.

Review of A Legend of Grand Mesa by Terri Ragsdale

As a lover of myths and legends, I was surprised and pleased to read this legend of Grand Mesa. I live in Grand Junction, Colorado which is in the shadow of Grand Mesa. I had never known that there was a legend of Grand Mesa. When I discovered that the author Terri Ragsdale had written this enchanting little children's book herself and had distributed it for years. I was pleased to meet a woman who understood that we all are creators in the best sense of the word and that each of us can create our own legends and myths. In fact I believe that when a person commits to writing myths, divine inspiration will come and provide rich images and materials to every writer. I think this is what happened with Terri -- she was provided by divine inspiration with the story and images for the Legend of Grand Mesa. I was pleased to publish a second edition of Terri's book through my publishing company, Dreamtime Press, and hope you will enjoy A Legend of Grand Mesa.

Dreamtime Press Books Available for Review

Planets to Pulsars: A Citizen's Guide to the Universe
by Jeff Dersham

This basic text on astronomy is fascinating because it's understandable. This entry level book is full of simple illustrations to make explanations easy. Finally a science book for normal people!

A Legend of Grand Mesa
by Terri Ragsdale

This children's story set in the time when Grand Mesa in western Colorado was an active volcano follows two star crossed lovers as they run from not only the wrath of their villagers, but from the mountain itself. 

From Rage to Rapture

by Eveta Chapla

This memory tells the true story of one woman's journey from the Ukraine under Soviet Communist's iron rule and her father's abusive treatment at home through her flight to the United States and the further abuse that awaited her there to the mystical visions that eventually gave purpose to her life.