Tag Archives: mystery

Dr. Marsha and the Case of the Missing Hot Dogs and Marshmallows by ​Dr. Rachel B. Wellner M.D. (Book Review)

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Doctor Marsha is a children’s book series created to entertain children at the preschool through grade school level relying on educational content. Our main character, Marsha, will introduce kids to exciting challenges in basic health education as she explores the world vanquishing health problems. It is my hope that the characters will stimulate young minds by introducing them to a positive, professional figure that embodies the spirit of cultural competence, creativity, and adventure.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I received a complimentary copy of this book from iRead Book Tours. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

 
Dr. Marsha and the Case of the Missing Hot Dogs and Marshmallows by ​Dr. Rachel B. Wellner M.D teaches young children about nutrition as they solve the puzzling mystery – Who stole all the hot dogs and marshmallows and why?


Preschool children will love the characters, who have human jobs and wear human clothing. In our house, Terrence Toad stole the show. My daughter thought the drawing of him with his tongue out while he was thinking about hot dogs and marshmallows was funny. 


What I liked about the story was the repetition. While there are several words I don’t think young readers will be able to decipher, I think older and more experienced readers will have no trouble. 


As for the mystery, it was fun guessing who we thought stole the “junk food.” After the mystery was solved, we discussed what “junk food” and healthy foods we liked to eat. Surprise, surprise, my youngest said she would eat marshmallows over oatmeal for breakfast. Sorry, Louie the llama. 


I don’t want to spoil why the hot dogs and marshmallows were stolen; however, the reason gave us an idea of what to draw during art time. For dinner, we also decided to make hot dogs and s’mores. 😀

 
Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Meet the Author:
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Dr. Rachel Wellner is a board-certified general surgeon and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, most recently the Assistant Professor of surgery at the Monteflore-Einstein Center for Care. She has also been Director of Breast Services at NYEE/Continuum Cancer Center, Pascal Valley Hospital, and Palisades General Hospital. Dr. Wellner graduated Magna Cum Lauda and Phi Betta Kappa from Dartmouth College, earned her medical degree from the University of Connecticut and her Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University. She pursued her surgical training at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and worked to establish a clinical rotation in an underserved region of The Dominican Republic. She completed Society of Surgical Oncology-accredited breast oncology fellowship at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California. She has been featured as a guest expert on several local and national news networks, including WPLX 11, Fox and Friends, and CNN.
 
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Cut and Run by Annabelle Lewis (Book Spotlight)

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​Their story continues . . .

The four Boston clairvoyants, blessed—or cursed—with special powers, must fight a ruthless enemy and stop injustice. In Dead Cat, Run, the Sisters of Fate drove them together, but at what cost? The God Apollo wasn’t playing around. He’s still dead set on vengeance.

Sinister forces will have a wicked agenda. An energy grab, a mineral rights war, and deadly mercenaries create a mortally serious game. But the psychics’ sibylline abilities aside, they’re only human. At least three of them are. (What’s up with that?)

Can they stop the killers? And who will survive?

​An energetic contemporary thriller, Cut and Run will have you on the edge of your seat as the dance between good and evil resumes.

 
 
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Excerpt of chapter one!! 

 
Duke Montague Marshall squinted into the harsh rays of the sun as they beamed with a strobe-like effect through his front windshield. Behind the wheel of his silver Toyota RAV4, he looked at the dashboard clock. Ten minutes to arrival.


“Nice up here,” Fiddler said, looking around. “Lots of trees.”

Duke felt no need to reply to his riding companion’s inane comment about the dense pines and spruce trees of the Superior National Forest. The forest, covering 3.9 million acres of land in Minnesota, also had about 2,000 lakes around the Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters region between the United States and Canada.

He looked in the rearview mirror at the vehicle following them. Five minutes to arrival.


“Run down the Monday-morning setup for me again,” Duke said.

“Assembly takes place in a green, industrial-type shed to the right past another shed-like main office with an awning and signage. They’ll be having their bullshit, Monday-morning meeting. Every fucking Monday the heads and general labor have a bull session. Donuts. Coffee. That kind of thing.”

Focusing on the task, Duke said, “We’re sure everyone will be there? No one in the quarry yet?”
 
Fiddler shook his head, his longish hair pulled back today. “Nah. Just the two places. Main office with the awning and the big green shed next to it.”

Not really worried about how things would go down, Duke told him to cut the noise once Fiddler started chattering about his planned trip to Turks and Caicos.

They’d arrived. Granger’s Quarry, a trillion-dollar shithole.

As they drove down a small gravel hill, Duke’s eyes roamed the parking lot. Relieved to spot the particular vehicle they needed, he pointed to it before slowly pulling up to the front door of the Granger’s Quarry office. He pressed the hatch button and got out, followed by Fiddler, and watched two more men on his team unload their own vehicle right behind them. They each grabbed a cheap AR15, all loaded with 30 round mags of 5.56 mm ammunition. One hundred twenty bullets should do the trick.


They closed the back ends of the vehicles, and Duke pointed to Thing 5 and then to the black F150 Ford truck they’d passed in the parking lot. Thing 5—or Alpha, as he was really known—was the number-five guy on Duke’s team and not yet deserving a personal pronoun. On Duke’s crew, a name had to be earned, but he was confident that Thing 5 knew what to do. Next, Duke’s focus turned to Thing 6, or Bravo. He pointed Bravo toward the front steps of the office and said, “Not until you hear me first.”

Thing 6 nodded as Duke and Fiddler headed to the green shed for the weekly BS meeting. Today, at least one of them will have something real to gripe about. The large industrial, metal shed next to the office had an eighteen-foot garage door open to the September elements. Duke could hear someone talking inside, so he raised his fist to stop Fiddler and quickly peeked inside. Sure enough, maybe fifteen guys sat in there, listening to some asshole at the front, yakking away—probably Chris Granger.

 
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Meet the Author:
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​Annabelle Lewis is a pseudonym for the author who lives in Minneapolis with her husband, children, and a wild thug of a dog who sleeps beside her. A multi-genre writer and publisher of 9 novels to date, her humorous mystery caper books have a theme – taking down the bad guy. Villains beware! She also writes a scathing blog and highly entertaining monthly newsletter. Sign up to follow at her website.
 
 
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Dead Cat, Run by Annabelle Lewis (Book Spotlight)

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​You’re where you’re meant to be. Run, if you can.

High school senior Jenny Gallagher’s psychic abilities have made life in her small New England town rocky. Her premonitions and déjà vu have given her a reputation, one she’s not happy with. Tragedy is about to strike, however, and oddly, this time, she doesn’t see it coming. Is her gift betraying her?

Not far from Jenny, Wellesley Professor Maximus Dyer also has a gift—a painful and useless one. His ability to see the past has brought him insight into history, but otherwise, he’s never known what to make of it. The psychic shocks he receives through his unprotected hands have made any genuine human relationships beyond his grasp. Then someone who doesn’t trigger a vision enters his life—a dog?

Sidrah Keeling runs determinedly optimistic throughout her life, trying hard not to ask the big questions about why. Her foresight, her ability to see glimpses of the future in her dreams, often drives her to follow a path she doesn’t understand. Alert and listening, with the guardrails of security she’s erected in place, she’s forced again to follow her dreams. This time to a man. Who is he?

Lurking deep in his sensory deprivation tank, Turner Black sees it all. Born out of the great chaos of time, he once again feels the forces of good gathering to move against him. Not in this life. This time, his darkness will reign supreme. The hunt for his antithesis will begin again now. He can’t wait to feel his opponent in destiny bleed.

​A fast-paced contemporary mystery thriller with a supernatural hierarchy, Dead Cat, Run will keep you up all night, glued to your seat.

 

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Meet the Author:

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​Annabelle Lewis is a pseudonym for the author who lives in Minneapolis with her husband, children, and a wild thug of a dog who sleeps beside her. A multi-genre writer and publisher of 9 novels to date, her humorous mystery caper books have a theme – taking down the bad guy. Villains beware! She also writes a scathing blog and highly entertaining monthly newsletter. Sign up to follow at her website.
 
 
Connect with the Author:  Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads
 
 
 
 

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The Keepers by Joy Lynn Goddard with Daniel Pike (Book Spotlight)

 

Author’s Note: Children’s mental health is a growing concern in today’s schools. Often kids suffer in silence because of the stigma attached to their mental health needs. Mental health organizations such as the Canadian Mental Health Association work hard to change this mindset. It can’t come soon enough. As a teacher, I worked with troubled teens and saw firsthand the devastating effects of their silence. With this in mind, I began writing The Keepers, for if I could help just one “Alexandre” find his voice, my efforts would be well worth it.There are a few mature scenes and some bad language here and there, reflective of a character coming-of-age.  

 
 
 
Book Description:

Despite struggling to raise a troubled teenage son on her own, Beth Marshall has no intention of selling her beloved vineyard and moving to the city where her ex-boyfriend awaits with open arms. She has strong ties to the land, where she is happy living with her granddad and aunt in the old farmhouse, so when she gets an offer to sell her property, she turns it down. Meanwhile, a writer recovering from a shattering past moves into the guest house, tugging at her heart. She’s not going anywhere.

But after her granddad discovers a dead body in their shed, Beth fights jail time. She can’t imagine a worse nightmare until she gets a call in the middle of the night with shocking news about her son!

 
 
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Meet the Authors:
AUTHOR JOY LYNN GODDARD

 
Joy Lynn Goddard teamed up with husband Daniel Pike to write contemporary adult fiction. Their first and second novels, Moonshadow and The Keepers, have global appeal and won Canada Book Awards. Besides novels, they wrote Buyers, Liars, Sellers and Yellers, a collection of humorous short stories about the real estate industry. Although she is well known for her young adult and junior fiction—starting with the award-winning Daredevils and including Hello, my name is Emily, Charlie’s Song, Jazz, When Pigs Fly, and Mrs. Maloney’s Garden—her adult novels are quickly attracting attention. Each book involves romance, mystery, and suspense genres.

Joy and Dan divide their time between Guelph and Belleville, Ontario, where they spend time with family when not working on their next book.

 
 

connect with the authors: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ goodreads

 
 

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Blood Like Rain by Tracy A. Ball (Book Review)

 

Dylan would do anything for his brother. Even if it means riding his motorcycle into hell… Or Rain, a town with a terrible past and a dark secret. They say the trouble is in the water, and that’s partially true. There’s poison in the ecosystem. But, the trouble is in their blood.

Nile could solve his problem. She could save them all. But, she doesn’t want to.

When mercy’s a sin, falling in love is not an option. 

…Not that it matters.

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(review request submitted by the author for an honest critique) 

 

Blood Like Rain by Tracy Ball was a book, unlike anything I have ever read before. Its plot was twisted but plausible. For the most part, Tracy had me scratching my head, wondering who the actual good guys were and what the heck was going on in the town of Rain! 

When bits and pieces of the mystery were revealed, the story became even more twisted. Blood Like Rain showed what greed can make a person do, what desperate people will do to survive, and the depths a person will go to protect those they love. 

Blood Like Rain speaks of horrendous crimes against humanity. The crimes are so outrageous I hope they stay in the world of fiction forever. 

In summation, the plot was unique and a perfect read for any science enthusiast. For those who adore love/romance books, Tracy has you covered there as well. 

BUY THE BOOK!

 

Heart Rating System:
1 (lowest) and 5 (highest) 
Score: ❤❤❤

 

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Meet the author – Tracy A. Ball

Made entirely of rum and snacks—International Bestselling Author, Tracy A. Ball is a native Baltimorean and veteran West Virginian, whose family is a mashup of cultures. She writes real and raw interracial romance with an intensity that burns because she has been busting stereotypes while teaching interracial/generational healing for more than a quarter of a century.

Tracy engages with folks from every twist of fate and all manner of experience. She has hung out with murderers and dined with people who have dined with the Pope, which is why she needs the rum…and a nap.

Her published works include: Blood Like Rain, Welcome to BBs, The Other Shore, “Mercury Chain Thomson” Death’s Desire, Big Guns & Bullsh@t, “Imogene’s Flowers,” “Thorns,” “Black’s Magic” “Truly, Madly, Kiss Me,” “Cumberland Christmas,” Civil Warriors, Dragonfly Dreams, “An Angel with Dirty Wings,” “Tsarina,” KAYOS: The Bad & The Worse, The Tiger & The Snake, The Right Way to Be Wrong, “Left on Marriottsville,” “The Train Ride,”  Mail Duty, White Russian Lies.

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