9 Books & Bookish Gifts to Complete your entire Christmas Shopping

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I'm an ocean away from friends & family so I have to do a lot of my Christmas shopping online. Here are a few good books and bookish gifts I've found:

9 Books & Bookish Gifts to Complete your entire Christmas Shopping

Grandparents:

Book stand pillow

Give wrists a rest while reading in bed.

Amazon

Moms and Aunts:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond
Over 8000 5-star ratings on Goodreads, over 1300 on Amazon, must be good.
Amazon; Barnes & Noble; ChristianBook

Dads and Uncles:

The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenberg

Over 1,100 5-star reviews on Amazon and over 1,400 5-stars ratings on Goodreads

ChristianBook; Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Adult nieces, cousins, sisters:

Golden Daughter by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Newest book in my favorite series. You know I had to put it somewhere in the list.
Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Adult nephews, cousins, brothers

or 

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Amazon (a deal on Monday!) or Barnes & Noble

Teen nieces, cousins, sisters:

Live Original by Sadie Robertson

I've enjoyed watching her on Dancing with the Stars this season; I'm sure her book is as warm, friendly, and genuine as she appears.

ChristianBook; Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Teen nephews, cousins, brothers:

The Keeper: The Unguarded Story of Tim Howard by Tim Howard with Ali Benjamin

The goalie for Team USA during the World Cup in 2014 tells his story. Releases Dec 9th.
Amazon; Barnes & Noble; ChristianBook

Under 10 niece, nephew, cousin, sibling, best friend's kids:

The Jesus Storybook Bible 

Over 1440 people gave it a 5-star rating on Amazon

CBD (save 59%!); Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Friends:
Any of the above (or below)

White Elephant gift:

Book Pillows

Amazon

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com or Independent Bookstores use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

Unspoken by Dee Henderson

Unspoken by Dee Henderson. Bethany House, 2013. 441p. (9780764211713) Series: (Not officially but Full Disclosure and Undetected are related, this one falls in the middle)

Oh my. What a complex book of emotions, fear, sacrifice, hope and dreams. And I just love that the author mentioned her O’Malley series and credited them to a character in this book (I hadn’t read Full Disclosure yet and this fun tidbit plays an important part in that story). I think I’ve found a new favorite author.

Goodreads Summary (edited):

Charlotte Graham is at the center of the most famous kidnapping in Chicago history.

The task force of FBI and local cops found her two abductors, killed them, rescued her, but it took four very long years. The fact she was found less than three miles from her home, had been there the entire time, haunts them. She's changed her identity, found a profession she loves, and rebuilt her life. She's never said a word--to the cops, to her doctors, to family--about those four years.

A family legacy has brought her back to Chicago. Bryce Bishop doesn't know her past, he only knows she has coins to sell from her grandfather's estate--and that the FBI director for the Chicago office made the introduction. The more he gets to know Charlotte, the more interested he becomes. But nothing else is working in his favor.

My Review:

Bryce Bishop is “bored out of his mind” with his life and his enjoyable job running a high-end coin shop. But both he and the reader don’t know how much that is going to change when Charlotte Graham shows up in his parking lot. And goodness what a ride it is.

I really don’t want to give away any surprises in this story! The intensity of this book is not in the drama or action, but it simply waiting alongside Charlotte and Bryce for things to progress, for trust to be built, for cold cases to be solved. In watching Charlotte struggle through continuing to figure out life 19 years after being held captive for four years.

Some reviewers have complained about the length – and it is a long book, but who hasn’t wished a story had been a bit longer just so you could spend more time with the characters. Some reviewers have complained about the details regarding the coins in the collection, but I found it interesting and it helps explain the grandfather’s estate, lets the reader get to know Bryce’s character and is an interesting glimpse into the world of coin collectors.

The romance was incredibly sweet and slow and subtle; a very clean romance too. They don’t make a big deal out of their faith either, the author is quite adept at creating characters who are Christians – she doesn’t include any sermons and isn’t pushy.

If you like suspense, mystery and romance, then this is a book for you.

Go read it! Find it at a library near you  ; Buy it from Amazon ($13.41/$8.63) ; Buy it from ChristianBooks.com ($9.49/$8.67); Buy it from Barnes & Noble ($13.67/$9.99); Buy it from anIndependent Bookstore near you

(Paperback/ebook prices good as of November 14, 2014 always double check for yourself)

Disclosure: I borrowed this book from the library. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Links include affiliate links. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com or Independent Bookstores use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

Golden Daughter by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Golden Daughter by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Rogglewood Press, 2014. 570p. (9780989447850) Series: Tales of Goldstone Wood, #7

I don’t even know where to begin in describing how amazing this book is. Epic, vast, complex, at times humorous, complicated, long (in a good way) would all be apt descriptions. Even though this is book 7 in the series it can be read at any time, chronologically it takes place way before Heartless, Veiled Rose and Moonblood and one mortal year after the Faerie world events of Shadowhand.

Goodreads Summary:

BEYOND THE REALM OF DREAMS IS A WORLD SHE NEVER IMAGINED

Masayi Sairu was raised to be dainty, delicate, demure . . . and deadly. She is one of the emperor’s Golden Daughters, as much a legend as she is a commodity. One day, Sairu will be contracted in marriage to a patron, whom she will secretly guard for the rest of her life.

But when she learns that a sacred Dream Walker of the temple seeks the protection of a Golden Daughter, Sairu forgoes marriage in favor of this role. Her skills are stretched to the limit, for assassins hunt in the shadows, and phantoms haunt in dreams. With only a mysterious Faerie cat and a handsome slave—possessed of his own strange abilities—to help her, can Sairu shield her new mistress from evils she can neither see nor touch?

For the Dragon is building an army of fire. And soon the heavens will burn.

My Review:

This is a cosmically complex story. As much as I tend to read books in one sitting I knew I couldn’t with this one. (Though part of that was because I was reading the ARC as a pdf on my kindle and my kindle didn’t like the large file size.) This is a book I fully tend to reread as soon as I can get my hands on a physical copy.

But also the writing and deep themes that Anne Elisabeth weaves into her stories make it such that it takes a bit longer to read (a good thing) and to fully absorb the tale.

Masayi Sairu
as drawn by AES

Goldstone Wood characters are always such “real” people. You get to know them personally. Eanrin as always was amazing (can he please walk out of the Wood and come visit?!). Masayi Sairu is a new favorite heroine; to use a crass (sorry Mom!) but apt word, she’s the epitome of a kick-ass heroine who also keeps a hold of her femininity.

As promised we get to know Sunan’s story and discover in part how he is also the ship captain in Veiled Rose and Goddess Tithe. But there’s still more to his story! What about the portrait on his wall!? I did enjoy finding out the origin of Una’s ring – well, the jewels in her ring. :-) But how did they get to her?!

Lady Hariwan was a first a bit of a conundrum – do we like her, do we fear her? And by the end – do we pity her, do we grieve her, or knowing what Ay-Ibunda is in Veiled Rose do we shudder at her? (Back in January 2012, Anne Elisabeth wrote a blog post about the temple. It’s interesting going back and reading that now.)

The Blue Star 

But more important than all that is the reason for the story: the night of the moonblood, and the goldstone. Two vast and very important pieces in the history of Goldstone Wood that have been hinted at since the very first book are finally told.

If you love fantasy, cosmic epicness, a good moral buried deep in the foundation, and the most famous bard to roam the Woods, then this is a book for you.

If you read this before 7pm - 9pm EST on Nov 10, 2014 then join the Golden Daughter Chat Party on Facebook!

Go read it! Buy it from Amazon ($4.99 / $15.29); Buy it from Barnes & Noble ($4.99); Buy it from Smashwords ($4.99)

(E-book/paperback prices good as of November 9, 2014; always double check for yourself)

Disclosure: I received this ARC for free from the publisher and author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com or Independent Bookstores use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.