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Good night, time to dream
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First Line Friday
Happy Friday & welcome to First Line Friday hosted at Reading is my Super Power! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today I’m delighted to feature Mishka by Edward van de Vendel; Anoush Elman.
Reading age 7-10 years 153 pages Levine Querido publisher Publication date November 12, 2024
ABOUT THE BOOK
Winner of the national book award for children’s literature in the Netherlands — a sweet and tender story of a girl refugee finding a new home!
Roya, her three brothers, and their parents have a new family member — Mishka, a bunny rabbit. He soon becomes a beloved part of their new home and gradually, the rabbit — and also Roya — get to hear the story of the family’s journey from Afghanistan to the Netherlands. Told from different perspectives every time: big Bashir, gentle Hamayun, tough Navid, and sometimes Mom and Dad. Mishka and Roya listen.
Anoush Elman and Edward van de Vendel became friends upon Elman’s arrival in the Netherlands, and fifteen years later, they decided to write a story for younger readers about his family’s experience. This gorgeous chapter book — illustrated throughout in full color — is a tender, lyrical story of a young girl processing a new country, new school, and new friends — and a bunny escape! — in a story readers and parents will treasure.
About the Author
Edward van de Vendel has been a school principal, founder, and teacher. He has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and received the German Jugendliteratur Prize; in 2023, he received the highest honor for children’s books in the Netherlands: the Gouden Griffel, for Mishka. Edward lives in Amersfoort, and travels widely.
Author residence: Netherlands
Anoush Elman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. When he was twelve he came to live in the Netherlands with his parents, brothers and sister, where the family had to wait seven years before receiving their residence permit. After high school he studied applied psychology, took a job as senior researcher at Pharos, the Dutch Center of Expertise On Health Disparities, and obtained his doctorate in 2022.
Author residence: Netherlands
Annet Schaap is a children’s book illustrator and in 2017 made her debut as both writer and illustrator for Lampje, which won the Gouden Griffel, the British Carnegie Medal, and the Premio Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi, and has been translated into 22 languages.
Illustratorresidence: Netherlands
Nancy Forest-Flier is an American-born translator and editor living and working in the Netherlands. She has translated several adult and children’s novels from Dutch to English as well as books of historical non-fiction. She has also translated for numerous Dutch museums and institutes including the Anne Frank House. She has six children and ten grandchildren.
Translator residence: Netherlands
It was the first evening in our new house. My three big brothers were all talking over each other and I was staring at the dinner plate on the table in front of me. Then I looked at the big window and the walls.
Let me know in the comments below the first line of the book you are currently reading.
Thank you for stopping in and stay warm. We have a storm coming Monday and our current weather is flurries and feels like 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
My first blog tour of the year and I am excited to join in. Wishing you all a beautiful day!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Forever Love at Wildflower Lock
Hannah Lynn’s GORGEOUS series continues as Daisy May looks ahead to her happy ever after…
It’s time to meet the family…
Daisy May thought she had everything figured out. After successfully establishing her coffee shop at the idyllic Wildflower Lock and with things going well with charming Theo, she was ready to embrace her happily ever after. But when Theo pops the question, the happiness is overtaken by worries.
Because meeting Theo’s family for the first time is not accompanied by the warm welcome she hoped for. Theo’s parents disapprove of her and they have no qualms in showing it. And when they reveal secrets about Theo’s past, Daisy is left in a spiral.
As insecurities creep in, and with even her own mother expressing her doubts, Daisy begins to question her future with Theo.
Will love conquer all, or will she give in to her fears and cancel the wedding?
The heartwarming conclusion to the Wildflower Lock series, a gorgeous story of friends, found family and above all, romance!
VISIT OTHER BLOGS ON THE TOUR
MY THOUGHTS
This is an author I am so glad I discovered several years ago and since then I have read all but one of her books. The series are so much fun, and I love seeing the continuation of the same characters in subsequent books.
The Wildflower Lock series is such a gem. The setting of the coffee shop and the houseboat are something I really enjoyed reading about. Its original and I loved it.
Daisy has been waiting for this moment for the longest time and now it has finally happened, Theo has proposed. He comes from a different background than her growing up and his family isn’t the most welcoming upon meeting her. Her anxiety soon zooms off the charts and she finds herself doubting everything about the relationship.
In step her friends and family, which I loved seeing the reassurance she got going forward. Heartwarming romance full of happy and hopeful times. Love will conquer all! Recommended for a sweet read that’ll pick up your spirits!
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/ForeverLoveWildflower
MEET THE AUHTHOR
MEET THE AUTHOR
Hannah Lynn is the author of over twenty books spanning several genres. As well as signing a new romantic fiction series, Boldwood will be republishing the first of her bestselling Sweet Shop series, inspired by her Cotswolds childhood, The Sweet Shop of Second Chances in April 2023.
Social Media Links –
Facebook:@HannahLynnAuthor
Twitter: @HMLynnauthor
Instagram: @hannahlynnwrites
Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/HannahLynnNews
Bookbub profile: @hmlynnauthor
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Happy New Year
I wish you all a Happy New Year filled with all good things, health, comfortable living and many fabulous memories to be made. Read some wonderful books and enjoy them. Thank you to all my readers I enjoy talking to you and reading your comments. Thank you for subscribing, liking my posts and sharing what’s going on with yourselves. May you be blessed in every way this year!
Wood Snake
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Happy New Year’s Eve
338 pages Boldwood Books publisher September 17, 2024 publication date buy link
ABOUT THE BOOK
Turn a tumbledown Paris hotel into a perfect boutique, bookish retreat, and have it open for Christmas? What could possibly go wrong?
When Anais receives a near-derelict Paris hotel in her divorce settlement, her first thought is to tidy it up and sell it immediately. All she wants is to move on and forget her disaster of a marriage ever happened.
But selling it proves impossible, so she has only one option: to make it gorgeous and open by Christmas… when her funds will almost certainly run out.
She’s not counting on the grumpy American bar-owner next door, Noah, coming and interfering at every moment though. Nor is she expecting to find a mysterious room – which holds the key to a one-hundred-year-old secret – about a woman who chose love against the odds.
One thing’s for sure… as the fairy lights twinkle all over the city of lights and the first snowflakes start to fall… this will be a Christmas in Paris to remember.
MY THOUGHTS
A warm hug in a book. This one was lovely with lots of descriptions of Paris life and foods.
Renovation of an old, dilapidated Parisian hotel into a new and modern boutique and bookish retreat had all the bookish feels you can imagine. The book also deals with Anais’s writers block after a divorce from a man just a little too charming with the ladies.
There is a mystery attached to the hotel, and we get lots of hotel renovation details.
I was drawn into the Paris life and the many literary references as I read.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Raisin is an internationally bestselling romance writer from Perth, Australia. Her books are set in stunning locations around the world providing a touch of escapism for her readers and those who like to partake in a spot of armchair travel from the comfort of their own home. Rebecca writes quirky heroines who haven’t figured it all out yet but are perfectly relatable, flaws and all. You’ll find themes such as friendship, love, new beginnings, food, wine and travel. She’s known for writing books for book lovers. Her next book: The Paris Bookshop for the Broken-Hearted is being published by Boldwood Books on February 3rd 2025. It’s a heartwarming tale about the power of reading and the finding community in bookshops.
Rebecca’s novel, Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop has been optioned by MRC Films for film adaptation.
Thank you for stopping in.
451 pages Barbour Fiction September 1, 2024 publication date
ABOUT THE BOOK
Christmas Is Simply a Time for Love
Enjoy a simple Amish Christmas in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that is sweetened by second chances, trimmed in love, and wrapped in faith.
Lucy’s Christmas Sunbeam by Anne Blackburne
When her parents suddenly died, Lucy stepped into the mother role for her infant sister with Down’s Syndrome. But Lucy’s boyfriend wasn’t interested in a readymade family. Living in the dawdi house on her brother’s farm, Lucy is happy with life—until she literally runs into the hardware store owner and desire for romance returns.
A Bird-in-Hand Christmas by Amy Clipston
After learning her boyfriend, Wyatt, was seeing someone else, Makayla moved across state and married. Recently widowed, she visits her parents for Christmas, only to find that Wyatt is still single and working for her father. When her five-year-old son instantly bonds with Wyatt, Makayla starts to hope for a second chance at love.
Christmas Lily by Amy Lillard
Seven-year-old Jacob Bontrager is working hard to help his lonely widower father find love again. He believes his pretty new teacher who has just moved to the community is perfect, but none of his matchmaking works until a snowstorm strands Lily Kate Troyer at the Bontrager farm. Could God and nature be on Jacob’s side?
Leaving Lancaster by Mindy Steele
The Wicky sisters didn’t expect their father to sell their thriving deer farm with plans to move them to Kentucky. Always obedient Louise fears for her growing jam business. Beth cannot wait to start a new adventure while her twin, Leah, is running out of time for a happy-ever-after. They have only one Christmas left in Lancaster. Can God deliver a Christmas miracle for all three?
MY THOUGHTS
I enjoy Amish books and to have the theme of Christmas was such a fun added bonus.
This book has four romance novellas centered around faith and Christmas.
Four well known Amish writing authors entertained me with light easy reading filled with Lancaster County, Pennsylvania couples.
These couples are courting, or it may be a second chance romance. Fun writing styles kept me reading. Sweet romance this book would make a fine gift for a friend.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHORS
Amy Clipston has been writing for as long as she can remember. Her fiction writing “career” began in elementary school when she and a close friend wrote and shared silly stories. She has a degree in communications from Virginia Wesleyan College and is a member of the Authors Guild, American Christian Fiction Writers, and Romance Writers of America. She is the author of the bestselling Kauffman Amish Bakery series with Zondervan, which is part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. An advocate for organ and blood donation, Amy donated a kidney in 2011 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Through her donation, her husband received a second kidney transplant. Amy and her husband matched another couple and swapped kidneys with them. Amy’s memoir, A Gift of Love, will be available in early 2014. She hopes her story inspires others to become organ and blood donors. Amy lives in North Carolina with her husband, two sons, mother, and four spoiled rotten cats. You can find her on the web at http://www.AmyClipston.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AmyClipstonBooks.
Raised in Kentucky timber country, Steele writes Amish Romance peppered in humor, using her rural surroundings as her muse. She is a best selling author and the winner of the 2022 and 2024 FHLCW Reader’s Choice award for sweet romance. Steele creates realistic characters for her readers and believes in engaging all the senses to make you laugh, cry, hold your breath, and root for the happy ever after ending. Readers can find themselves, somewhere within her pages.
Anne Blackburne lives and works in Southeast Ohio as a newspaper editor and writer. She is the mother of five grown children, has one wonderful grandchild, and a spoiled poodle named Millie. For fun, when she isn’t working on Amish romance or sweet mysteries, Anne directs and acts in community theater productions and writes and directs original plays. She also enjoys reading, kayaking, swimming, searching for beach glass, and just sitting with a cup of coffee looking at large bodies of water. Her idea of the perfect vacation is cruising and seeing amazing new places with people she loves.
Amy loves nothing more than a good book. Except for her family…and maybe homemade tacos…and nail polish. But reading and writing are definitely high on the list.
Born and bred in Mississippi, Amy is a transplanted Southern Belle who now lives in Oklahoma with her deputy husband, their genius son, two spoiled cats, and one very lazy beagle. Oh, and don’t forget the stray kitty that has taken up residence on her front porch. ^..^
When she’s not creating quirky characters and happy endings, she’s chauffeuring her prodigy to guitar lessons, orchestra concerts and baseball practice. She has a variety of hobbies, but her favorite is whatever gets her out of housework.
Amy also writes contemporary romances under the pen name Amie Louellen.
An award winning author, Amy is a member of RWA and ACFW. She loves to hear from readers. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest. For links to the various sites, check her website: http://www.amylillardbooks.com.
341 pages Lake Union Publishing February 4, 2025 publication date
ABOUT THE BOOK
A heartbreaking story of friendship, loyalty and the true cost of love, from the bestselling author of The Secret Midwife and Wives of War.
Berlin, 1944: Amira and Gisele have been best friends since they were children, and now Gisele is the only person who knows Amira’s secret. A secret that puts her and everyone she loves in unimaginable danger amid the daily horror and violence of Nazi Germany.
With the threat of exposure drawing closer, Gisele’s suggestion that Amira marries her friend Fred, a famous pianist, might just be the lifeline she needs to keep them both safe. Because Fred has secrets too.
As the two strangers promise to look after each other, a profound love develops. But while the war rages on, Amira, Fred and Gisele are soon faced with terrible choices that will test their loyalty—and their courage—to the ultimate limits. How far will they go to keep each other alive?
An unforgettable World War Two novel about those who chose to defy the Nazis from within Germany.
MY THOUGHTS
Based on true history. My heart aches for all affected by the war, any war, past present and future.
Childhood friends Amira and Gisele have enjoyed a lifelong friendship, now they are adults. Amira has a secret that she’s been shieled from and it really hasn’t affected her until her father passes away. After his death she must face the harsh realities who she is and realizes even more why her father kept her hidden away for her safety.
Full of secrets that if found out could be life altering. No one should have to worry about not being accepted for who you are and your secret meaning death if found out.
I love reading the author’s books. Her books are so well researched, and I simply can’t put them down. Engrossed in the book, it kept me company for the while afternoon.
This book honors women and the sacrifices they make. May we never forget the victims of the wars and the ultimate sacrifices they have given.
This author’s writing keeps me coming back every single time. Amazing!
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Soraya M. Lane graduated with a law degree before realizing that law wasn’t the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction, and her novel Wives of War was an Amazon Charts bestseller.
Soraya lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons and a collection of four legged friends. When she’s not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading.
For more information about Soraya and her books, visit http://www.sorayalane.com or http://www.facebook.com/SorayaLaneAuthor, or follow her on Twitter @Soraya_Lane
Thank you for stopping in.
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Favorite automobile?
What is your all time favorite automobile?
Well let’s see, if you were to ask my favorite type of car it would be this one.
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Creativity
How are you creative?
There are so many ways to be creative. I enjoy creating a reading journal , using a graphics program and creating tags online from digital scrapbook kits and baking. I also enjoy plotting out a flower and vegetable garden once the danger of frost is past.
Vegan Book Blogger 