Love Inspired Books Review and Giveaway

Love Inspired books are heartwarming inspirational romance stories from a Christian perspective. They focus on realistic stories about families, relationships and sometimes life-shattering events. You can really relate and sympathize with the people in these stories. They are like Lifetime movies and pretty inexpensive too, about $5 each. You can also purchase them in a monthly box set.

The Love Inspired book line is a series of 6 books that are released every month. The books we received are from the May release. They are on sale from April 21 to May 28. They would make wonderful Mother's Day gifts!

The titles included in the May box set are:

The Rancher Takes a Bride by Brenda Minton
"When Oregon Jeffries introduces rancher Duke Martin to the daughter he never knew he had, can they move beyond the mistakes of their pasts and possibly build a future together?"

Winning the Teacher's Heart by Jean C. Gordon
"Single mom Becca Norton is fighting Jared Donnelly for the preservation of her neighborhood, yet when she must battle for custody of her children, can this former bad boy come to her family's rescue?"

The Single Dad Finds a Wife by Felicia Mason
"Dr. Spring Darling wants a family of her own. But when she falls for single dad David Camden and his little boy, can she get past the architect's plan to ruin her historic family home?"

The Doctor's Second Chance by Missy Tippens
"Having given up her child for adoption years ago, Dr. Violet Remy is given a second chance at the family she's always longed for when new daddy Jake West seeks her help in raising his adorable baby niece."

A Firefighter's Promise by Patricia Johns
"Firefighter Matt Bailey needs a fresh start in a new town. But he can't abandon the boy he once found on his doorstep—or the boy's amazing adoptive mom. Despite his past mistakes, can he be the hero they both need?"

Bachelor to the Rescue by Lorraine Beatty
"Connected by a mutual tragedy, Shawn McKinney promises to care for widow Lainie Hollings and her girls. Can working together to restore the town library bridge the gap between these two wounded hearts?"

I typically prefer romance novels that resolve around some sort of theme or setting that I enjoy. I love historical romances and country settings. I was raised on old-fashioned beliefs and traditions, so I really love stories like these. They are fairly quick to read, too. Most only took an evening to work through, while the others I read over the course of a week. I'm pretty partial the rancher's story, seeing as I just caught up on Nashville, so it fit in with my current mood for all things country. I can't wait to check out some of the other stories on the website!

Use this coupon to save $1.00 on your purchase of any Love Inspired book!

Buy the books here!

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Enter the giveaway for your chance to win 6 Love Inspired books!

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Two Year Blogiversary and Giveaway!

We have been blogging for two years now! It's hard to believe it has been that long already! But I am so happy to still be blogging and look forward to another wonderful year! I'd like to share a couple of our highlights and share a few of our favorite posts from this past year.

Bean turned 5 over the winter and Munchkin will be 4 this summer. They are getting so big and are learning so much. Our homeschool year has been pretty amazing so far. Bean loves learning to read and write and pretends to be a dog nearly non-stop, and Munchkin is obsessed with Lego's, building (with anything) and learning about vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

I opened an Etsy store after enough readers asked if I sold my felt creations! It makes me so happy to share our creations with you. So many teacher's have ordered our felt board sets and use them in our classrooms! I have so much fun working with customers to create custom orders that are unique and fun to play with. And I always add a little something extra, which I think it pretty awesome. :)

(Don't forget to enter our giveaway at the end of the post!!)

I also became an Independent Consultant for Usborne Books & More. So if you are ever looking for amazing and educational books, stop by our store and check them out! Being a homeschooler, we love using these books for unit studies, casual reading, and projects. Bean loves Usborne's non-fiction fact books, lift-the-flap books and activity books, while Munchkin loves all the vehicle books, activity cards and Farmyard Tales books. If you ever want to earn FREE BOOKS by hosting an Usborne Facebook party, just sign up here or message me and I'll let you know how it works and answer any questions. 

I have continued to make felt crafts and love sharing them on the blog. I love reading the comments and when reader's let us know that our crafts inspired them to create their own felt foods or felt play mats for their kids. That's my main reason for blogging! I also started needle felting, which is so fun, but also painful when you accidentally stab your finger...

I finally started our Game of the Month series, which was a long time coming, where we share our favorite kid or family friendly games. We review them, teach you how to play and give you ideas on how to incorporate them into family game night or homeschool lessons. They are some of my favorite posts to write, since we absolutely love playing games. We'll start sharing more game posts throughout the month, primarily focusing on creating Family Game Night.

Our favorite posts:

Tabletop Role-Playing Games for Kids

Game of the Month - My First Carcassonne

Best Games for Kids

Hulk Letter SMASH

Apple Picking Math Felt Board

Sight Word Apple Picking Game

Little Blue Truck Felt Board

Colonial Small World

How to Make a Felt TeePee

DIY Felt Sewing Shapes

Felt Uppercase Letter Bean Bags

Felt Lowercase Letter Bean Bags

Felt Play Mats

Needle Felted Play Mat

To celebrate our yearly milestone, I'm offering a giveaway to our readers! It's a $25 credit towards anything in our Etsy Store, which includes custom orders! 

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And as an added bonus, for the rest of the month of April, you can use coupon code "BLOGIVERSARY10" to save 10% on your Etsy order! {Ends 4/30}

Whatever Wanda Book Review

Disclosure: I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Whatever Wanda! by Christy Ziglar is the third book in the Shine Bright Kids series. We reviewed Must-Have Marvin! a few months back and we were excited to read Whatever Wanda! It is nice to see stories that teach moral lessons in an easy to understand way. My daughter followed along with the story, noting the emotion star (there's a star following Wanda on every page), because the star conveys how she feels. Wanda has a grumpy attitude, while the rest of her family is cheerful and goes on with their day. She watches her family and friends having fun, and just doesn't seem to be able to enjoy the day with them. She needs an attitude change, and after getting some wonderful advice from her teacher, she's able to join in the fun. She accepts that she should at least try to have fun, even if she doesn't know if she's going to have any. She does, in fact, end up having a blast and it changes her perspective into a positive one!

My kids, luckily, are generally positive kids and enjoy themselves in situations like this. They are more shy, than anything else. However, books like this help them to notice how other children act in public. Seeing children who are not having fun at the park, for instance, makes them want to run over and invite them to play. We obviously teach them to respect boundaries, but to always include everyone who wants to play.

About the Books

The Shine Bright Kids series provides children and their families with the tools to teach the importance of making good choices. The series explores such topics as: using good judgment, taking responsibility, having a positive attitude, and demonstrating perseverance.

About the Author

Christy Ziglar, financial planner, mother of twins, and niece of legendary motivator and the world's original optimist, Zig Ziglar, is bringing the same timeless wisdom and ageless advice to an entirely new, younger audience through her Shine Bright Kids picture book series. Christy, her husband, and their twins live in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Shine Bright Kids has coloring pages and reward charts available on the website for kids and discussion starters available for parents. 

If you're a fan of the Shine Bright Kids books or just want a chance to win a copy of your own, enter our giveaway for a chance to win Whatever Wanda!

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The Adventures of Pajama Girl Book Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Adventures of Pajama Girl: The Coronation of the Cupcake Queen by Sandra Hagee Parker is a Christian story is about two sisters who have delightful dreams inspired by their pajamas. Ellie, AKA Pajama Girl, has an awesome bedtime routine of choosing out pajamas that will inspire her dreams that night. In this story, she chose cupcake printed pajamas and dreamed about the Cupcake Kingdom where she met the Cupcake Queen. Ellie's younger sister, Princess Sis, was there for the adventures as well.

The Adventures of Pajama Girl is best suited for children 4-8 years old. My youngest is 3, and my cousin who we babysit is 1, both enjoyed this story as well. I honestly believe children of any age will enjoy this story. 

The illustrations in this story are cute and hand-drawn. The imagination of children is limitless and this story reflects on that. All children will be able to relate to Ellie and her sister. It may even inspire children to wear their own magical pajamas to create wonderful dreams for themselves. So join the Pajama Girls and go on an adventure to help the Cupcake Queen find the sprinkles for her coronation ceremony! 

Like many books for children, there is a moral to the story. This story deals with the effects of stealing and how it can effects others feelings. The children are able to work together to fix the situation to make it right for everyone!

If you decide to pre-order the book, be sure to sign up for free updates and coloring pages!

Be sure to enter our giveaway for a chance to win a copy of The Adventures of Pajama Girl!

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Easter Stories Book Review

Disclosure: I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

About the Book

Everyone who believes Easter is about more than Easter egg hunts will be grateful for this new anthology of short stories that illumine the true meaning of the season. Selected for their spiritual value and literary quality, these classic tales capture the spirit of Holy Week and Easter in a way that will captivate readers of all ages. Parents and grandparents will find that children love to hear these stories read aloud, year after year.

Easter Stories includes time-honored favorites from world-famous storytellers such as C.S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Selma Lagerlof, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Goudge, Maxim Gorky, Ruth Sawyer, Anton Chekhov, and Walter Wangerin – as well as many you’ve never heard before. Illustrated with original woodcuts. Easter stories is over 350 pages long! You can view the entire Table of Contents here.

What We Liked

I love that this book contained stories that take place throughout history and from around the world. I also like that all the stories are short enough to read one or two before bed. We can also incorporate them into our Easter-themed learning activities, where we usually read a story and create an art craft. It's interesting to see an Easter book sticking to one theme, which is of course the "true meaning" of Easter and the Christian faith, rather than a mixture of faith-based and regular Easter stories. This is a wonderful collection of stories that families will want to read every Easter!

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Be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win your own copy of Easter Stories! Giveaway is open to US and Canada residents. 

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Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

 Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Texas K-9 Unit Series Book Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: I was provided these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We are reviewing Love Inspired Suspense books Texas K-9 Unit Series Books 1-3: Tracking Justice, Detection Mission, and Guard Duty. We received these books as an eBook bundle and I downloaded them onto my phone to read on the Amazon Kindle App. Tracking Justice was written by Shirlee McCoy (be sure to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post for a copy of her new book!), Detection Mission was written by Margaret Daley, and Guard Duty was written by Sharon Dunn.

Each book in the Texas K-9 series features a different police officer and his canine companion. These are action-packed suspense novels with wholesome romance. So if you're concerned about your teenage reading a romance novel with unwholesome romance (nudity and graphic scenes), this may be a good option! Love Inspired Books are written by Christian women and are said to "touch the heart and soul."

 I would read the series in order, because even though they are individual stories and written by different authors, the stories weave together a bigger plot about a crime ring in Texas. There is a missing police dog, so I assume by the last book we will find out what happened to it and they presumably take down the crime ring trying to take over the town.

I would say these books are best for young adults and will be exciting for both boys and girls. And because these books are "clean" romance, I won't have to worry about whether my daughter is 12 or 17 when she reads these.

I read the first book in about a week, usually about 40 minutes a day. There were over 20 chapters, so depending on the speed of the reader, it may take more or less time than that. There are also discussion questions at the end of the book, so you can easily use them for book reports or homeschool lessons. Each book is over 200 pages and the whole series is nearly 700 pages!

About the box set:

Love Inspired Suspense authors Shirlee McCoy, Margaret Daley and Sharon Dunn will get your pulse racing with tales of Texas cops and their loyal K-9 dogs tracking down a crime ring. Enjoy three action-packed Texas K-9 Unit romantic suspense novels in one box set! When a boy goes missing from his bedroom, a police detective must assure a desperate single mother that he and his trusty bloodhound will find her son. A woman with amnesia has to rely on an officer and his border collie to stay alive when she can't remember who tried to kill her. An FBI agent is called in to protect a single mother when the rookie K-9 officer witnesses a murder and becomes the killer's target.

About the authors:

Shirlee McCoy has always loved making up stories. As a child she daydreamed elaborate tales in which she was the heroine — gutsy, strong and invincible. Though she soon grew out of her superhero fantasies, her love for storytelling never diminished. Shirlee knew early that she wanted to write inspirational fiction and began writing her first novel when she was a teenager. Still, it wasn't until her third son was born that she truly began pursuing her dream of being published. Three years later she sold her first book. Now a busy mother of four, Shirlee is a homeschool mom by day and an inspirational author by night. She and her husband and children live in Maryland and share their home with a dog and a guinea pig.

Margaret Daley has been writing for over 35 years. She started writing in the late 1970s because she wanted to see if she could put a whole story down on paper. That book is still in the drawer and will never see the light of day. But she was able to finish a book, which was her goal. She loved teaching and working with students with special needs, and recently retired from teaching to write full-time. When she isn't working, she loves to read, travel, and go to lunch and a movie with a friend. She and her husband, Mike, to whom she has been married for over 40 years live in Tulsa. Besides teaching and writing, she is also a mother of one. Her son, Shaun, is married with four daughters.

Sharon Dunn first fell in love with mystery and suspense about the time she read Nancy Drew mysteries in the fifth grade. Her first book in the Ruby Taylor mysteries Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves was a finalist for the Romantic Times Inspirational Book of the Year. The second book in that series Sassy Cinderella and the Valiant Vigilante was voted Book of the Year by American Christian Fiction Writers. Her hobbies include reading, working out, hiking, trying to find things around the house and making pets out of the dust bunnies under the furniture. Before she started writing, she used to sew. Now she just collects fabric and patterns and fantasizes about projects. After nearly twenty seven years of marriage, Sharon lost her beloved husband in 2014. She lives with her three nearly grown children, two cats and a nervous border collie named Bart.

Look for more Texas K-9 Unit books sold separately:
Explosive Secrets by Valerie Hansen
Scent of Danger by Terri Reed
Lonestar Protector by Lenora Worth
Texas K-9 Unit Christmas by Shirlee McCoy and Terri Reed

Be sure to check out Love Inspired Books Facebook page!

You can use this coupon to receive $1.00 off a copy of Protection Detail.

Protection Detail is the first book in Shirlee McCoy's new series, Capitol K-9 Unit, which will be released on March 3rd. Enter our giveaway to win your own copy! Giveaway is only open to residents in the US and Canada.

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Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

 Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.