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book reviews |
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Multi-volume author, Mercedes Rochelle, introduces us to the first volume in her series about ancient English kings more than a millennia ago: Harold Godwineson, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, owed everything to his father. Who was this Godwine, first Earl of Wessex and known as the Kingmaker? Was he an unscrupulous schemer, using King and Witan to gain power? Or was he the greatest of all Saxon Earls, protector of the English against the hated Normans? The answer depends on who you ask. He was befriended by the Danes, raised up by Canute the Great, given an Earldom and a wife from the highest Danish ranks. He sired nine children, among them four Earls, a Queen and a future King. Along with his power came a struggle to keep his enemies at bay, and Godwine's best efforts were brought down by the misdeeds of his eldest son Swegn. Although he became father-in-law to a reluctant Edward the Confessor, his fortunes dwindled as the Normans gained prominence at court. Driven into exile, Godwine regathered his forces and came back even stronger, only to discover that his second son Harold was destined to surpass him in renown and glory.  A good portion of my ancestry is found in the United Kingdom. The Magna Carta came out of England. The history of England and the UK is pretty important to me as a citizen of the US of A. I approached this book with high hopes of a relevant and exciting story. I am not in the least bit disappointed! The writing is quite good. Mercedes’ scene setting is wonderful, I felt like I was right beside Godwine all the way. There were so many pivotal events in his life as pictured in this exciting historical fiction. There is dialogue and action aplenty! The complex characters stayed quite true to their roots in so many of the instances. The court intrigues in and out of the castles, the battles on land and sea. The brutal warfare and strategizing all contributed so much to an exciting piece of literature. Mercedes’ research complements her fiction so well. I have no doubt the moves by major characters are very accurate. I give Godwine Kingmaker a score of 4.7 stars.  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Godwine-Kingmaker-Great-Saxon-Earls-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/book/-godwine-kingmaker https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/godwine-kingmaker-mercedes-rochelle You can follow the author: http://www.twitter.com/AuthorRochelle http://www.mercedesrochelle.com http://www.mercedesrochelle.net http://www.historicalbritainblog.com Tags: Medieval, European, historical, history, King, Queen, royalty I have reviewed other books by this author: https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/the-sons-of-godwine https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/fatal-rivalry-by-mercedes-rochelle https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/heir-to-a-prophecy-by-mercedes-rochelle-narrated-by-kevin-e-green https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/a-king-under-siege-book-one-of-the-plantagenet-legacy-by-mercedes-rochelle https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/the-kings-retribution https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/the-usurper-king Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction
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Journey through Childhood Trauma and Chronic Illness into Healing Multi-volume author, Elizabeth M. Clamon introduces us to her latest book Beauty Rising from Brokenness: Even though we can’t choose the adversities that come against us, we can choose how we let them affect us. We choose to let them make us better or bitter. We can choose to heal, then use these adversities to teach us, help us grow, and use us them to help others. Elizabeth shares the story of her humble beginnings and the events in her early childhood that began her brokenness. How stress affects you, even pre-birth, and how she chose not to let the brokenness define her. The questions and frustration of not knowing who her father was. How she asked and was rejected time and time again until she finally could not live with the lies any longer. When she finally confronted her mother with her need for answers the reaction was something she could not have imagined. After several major life changes and a move across the country the brokenness begins to affect her physical health. She is forced back into a stressful living environment and finally has to face the abuse and trauma she has suffered. She makes the hardest decision she could have to make. Another major move and the inability to continue living a lie, she comes close to a nervous breakdown. She has thirty plus years of anger and rage spewing on everyone and everything in her path. She finally seeks help to work through the brokenness. Years of toxic stress having taken their toll on her physical health. She shares with you the specific path to natural healing she took to regain her health. She encourages you to choose and walk your own path to healing physically. Years of stress and trauma cause her to believe all sorts of lies about who she is and why she's here. She shares with you the path to mental healing and ways she replaced the lies she was told with the truth. You will be challenged to change your thoughts in order to change your life. Depression is almost a given when you're raised in a dysfunctional family. Getting control of your emotions is possibly one of the hardest parts of healing. She shares with you the range of emotions she felt and was acting upon. She shares her experience of being raised by narcissistic parents and the struggle to heal emotionally. Finally, she meets with family again and experiences the final blow she can take. As she begins to feel the depression and despair take over again, she makes a bold choice, one that will help her finally find freedom. Free of the brokenness and able to step into her purpose, she is surprised by how sweet freedom really is.  This is a powerful story of one woman’s journey from a brokenness that began in the womb and culminates in a healing journey. Elizabeth deals with so many issues in her life and shares the struggle with us along the way. First person point of view is an excellent method of sharing a story such as this. Elizabeth does a superb job of detailing so many of the obstacles she faced and the process she went through to overcome them. Her scene-setting is quite good, there is dialogue aplenty and action keeps the story moving along at a good pace. While her struggles, in all areas of her life were manifold, she never gave up seeking relief and healing, even when going in the wrong direction. I give Beauty Rising from Brokenness a score of 4.9 stars.  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Rising-Brokenness-Journey-Childhood-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/-beauty-rising-from-brokenness https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beauty-Rising-Brokenness-Journey-Childhood-ebook You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/ClamonElizabeth https://twitter.com/Clamonnatural https://www.clamonnaturalhealth.com/ https://www.elizabethclamon.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-clamon https://www.instagram.com/clamonnaturalhealth https://facebook.com/abetterway2heal https://facebook.com/ElizabethClamonspeaker I have reviewed another book by Elizabeth Clamon, "Fiercely Faithful": www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/fiercely-faithful-by-elizabeth-clamon Tags: self-help, parenting, families, dysfunctional family, military wife, PTSD, relationships, spiritual life Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction Multi-volume author, Trina Jordan, introduces us to her third book How to Live: Regardless of your age, you will have a dark moment. That one dark moment will always want control. One way to live is to remain hopeful in your darkest hour. You will experience moments of wanting to give up. You must never give up on tomorrow. I know life is hard sometimes. Therefore, I hope you can find yourself in one of my characters who won their fight and found themselves, their dream job, a rewarding relationship, and a good family life. Read my book, learn to take advantage of the peaceful moments in your  Trina has written a good book it will help people avoid common pitfalls and build their self-esteem. It’s a little bit of a do-it-yourself guide for teens and adults. Trina presents a number of common scenarios that many people face at one time or another, she walks through the situations offering advice, encouragement and support. These helps are hard to come by sometimes. Trina is full of optimism and has great concern for young people and especially girls and young women. Trina says over and over to stay hopeful, look to the future and work hard to make it better for yourself and the ones you love. She has a lot to say about making wise choices also in all the important matters of life. Family, school, significant relationships, and the workplace are all areas critical to a person’s success. I am a grandfather of four girls and I will recommend they read this when they reach the appropriate age. I give How to Live a score of 4.8, it’s well worth reading for all ages.  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Hard-Never-Give-Up https://www.goodreads.com/book/how-to-live You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/tjmb052010 https://www.amazon.com/trinamjordan http://www.linkedin.com/in/trinajordan Tags: self-help, self-esteem, hope, faith Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction Award winning author, Veronica Cline Barton, introduces us to the second volume in her series, Cast, Crew, and Carnage; the Filming of Castlewood Manor: |
Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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