Library of Lights

Title:Just A Wish Away

SubTitle: Book #2, Wish Series

Publisher: Barbara Freethy

Pub Date: May 01, 2012

ISBN: 9780985199739

Author: Barbara Freethy

When I picked up this book by Barbara Freely, I thought “Oh, no! It’s gonna be one of the books that will send me into fits of crying again!” But I was wrong. Unlike the first instalment of the series, this book gave me hope and made me believe in second chance again even though each and every one of us has change to the point you could no longer recognize yourself in the mirror. Wonderfully told. Kudos to the author for such a beautiful story.

I received an ARC of this book from Barbara Freely via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review for this book. I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Book description:

Alexa Parker and Braden Elliott fell in love when they were twelve years old. On a summer day, while searching for sea glass on the beaches of Washington State, they discovered an unusually shaped blue bottle. The ever-imaginative Alexa declared it a genie’s bottle. Popping the cork, they were surprised by a rogue wave that sprayed them with a fine, cool mist. Closing their eyes, they each made a wish …

Before their love had a chance to grow, life, family and tragedy separated the two best friends. Now fifteen years later, Alexa returns to Sand Harbor after her aunt is injured in a mysterious break-in at her antique store. Braden is also back, but he’s not the innocent boy Alexa remembers. His military service has left him with physical and emotional scars.

Can the sweet love of youth be recaptured by two now cynical souls? Can solving the mystery of the past bring them to a new future? Or will it take a wish, maybe two …

Title: A Secret Wish

SubTitle: Book #1, Wish Series

Publisher: Barbara Freethy

Pub Date: January 02, 2012

ISBN: 9780983651789

Author: Barbara Freethy

I cried when I read this book. The first story touched my heart the most. I could really feel for Liz; the one who have everything, and yet nothing at all. I could feel her loneliness, and her struggles to reach out for someone whom she could share her life with.

The other three stories were equally good, but for now, I’m still crying over Liz’s story, and I wished I could have met that handsome stranger who will take away all of the pain in my heart too.

What I really think about this book is that, some of the stories does reflect the real pain of women today. How am I supposed to rate this book? It made me cry alot. I enjoyed reading it, but it made me sad too… so I’m gonna just rate this book a 4 star for the bumpy emotional ride.

I received an ARC of this book from Barbara Freely via Netgalley. i was not required to write a positive review for this book.

Book description:

Three women, three birthdays and one unforgettable night that will change their lives forever.

One night in San Francisco, three women make a birthday wish believing it can’t possibly come true. Liz is turning thirty. A successful nurse, she has a good career, but no man to share her life. All her friends are married, and she’s alone, still trying to outrun a tragedy from her past. Then she meets a handsome stranger.

Angela, a member of a large, loving Italian family, is facing thirty-five with no baby in the nursery. Eight years of infertility treatments have put a strain on her marriage. Will she have to choose between her husband and having a child? When she is mugged by an unexpected assailant, her life takes a new turn.

Carole, a corporate wife, is staring down forty candles. Having grown up poor, she worked hard to get ahead, but when her kids bail on her birthday, and she discovers her husband with another woman, she realizes that she may have nothing at all. She goes back to where it all began, the mother she left behind, and the man whose heart she once broke.

Love all thing Amish? Enjoy a soul-soothing, quirky and romantic Christian fiction? Well then, ‘The Amish Wedding’ is just the right book for you. It’s a compilation of 3 stories by 3 great Christian fiction authors. I love all the stories equally and I spent a great time reading this book.

I’ll be honest with you. I’m not exactly a fan of Amish fiction. Most of the time, I feel that they are too traditional, backward and restrictive, but this book change my mind about Amish fiction. Amish fiction can be fun and romantic too. I’m glad the authors showed me that.

I received an ARC of this book from Thomas Nelson Publisher. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Book description:

Three Amish women yearn for the perfect wedding.

“A Perfect Plan” by Beth Wiseman

Priscilla King has been planning to marry Chester Lapp since she was sixteen years old, and when Chester proposes on Priscilla’s nineteenth birthday, wedding plans begin immediately. What wasn’t planned was all the problems the couple encounters as their big day approaches. A house disaster, a ruined wedding dress, and a sick attendant all make the couple wonder if God’s sending them signs to call things off.

“The Perfect Match” by Kathleen Fuller

Naomi Fisher has had great success at matchmaking her family members and friends. Now with her sister’s wedding right around the corner, Naomi wonders why she’s able to find husbands for her friends and family, but not one for herself.

“The Perfect Secret” by Kelly Long

Rose Bender has recently become engaged to handsome but somber Luke Raber. She agrees out of a sense of duty and a willingness to settle for solid friendship as a basis for the engagement. But as she watches her friend’s excitement over her soon-to-be wedding, Rose wonders if there shouldn’t be more to her relationship with Luke. She begins to examine Luke and his life more closely and is amazed when she stumbles upon an exciting, secret side of him that engages her mind and heart.

If you’re like me, you’ll find that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is pretty hard to do. You see, I’m a very laid back person, and as of late, I find myself being rather attached to not only the idiot box, but various social media websites. Those…those things are absolute evil. They made me feel that going out for an evening walk is such a feat.

I know it’s not healthy, but what can I do? Those stuff are addictive, and I can’t exactly quit cold turkey on them. They have been quite an important part of my life, and if I want to reduce the time I spend in front of my PC or my smartphone, I got to do it one step at a time.

I went to a health talk a couple of days ago. The talk pretty much emphasized on healthy living in the modern world, and I thought I’d share the tips on healthy living in the world that’s infested with technology with you:

• Facebook and twitter can be fun, but the real world is much more fun if you try to get reconnected with it. So make an effort to go out for awhile and take a breath of fresh air daily during your free time instead of just slacking in front of the PC.
• Practice a healthy lifestyle, even though you’re too busy for it. Eat balance meal and never skip meals. It helps nourish and nurture your body.
• If you want to loose weight, try not to starve yourself. Exercise and take supplements like moringa capasules instead. Exercise do wonder to one’s body.
• Eat food that grows on plants instead of taking food that’s made in plants instead. Eating organic food is always better for your body than processed food.
• Engage in various comminity outlet. Communicate with real people instead of just your online friends.

I know I can’t change overnight, but I can make an effort to make a difference in my life. And so can you, if you’re determined enough do do it.

Are you in business line? Managing business is not always easy. It can be very stressful when you’re managing business on your own. Well, at least, for me it’s stressful as I’m still on the early stage of establishing my own business.

Speaking from experience, you need to maintain a lot of things so that your business will continue to grow and run smoothly without interruption. Cutting loss and increasing revenue can be rather tricky at times, but it’s not impossible if you manage your business properly.

One of the thing that you could never mis-manage when it comes to your business is your email list. You need to manage your business contacts properly so that you can maintain good business relationship with your clients and potential clients so that you can nurture more business leads.

Good business leads usually translate to a good profit and revenue. So, in other words, having a good email list of potential clients and managing it is important if you want to attempt to increase your sales and revenue.

You see, email is one of the most effective means of communication. It’s not only free, but it’s also fast and convenient. Most people these days prefers to communicate with their service provider and browse through promotions through emails, and if you’re smart, you’ll keep in touch with all of your clients via emails and send them newsletter of your promotions every now and then.

There are various email platforms you can use to manage your email list Most of them are free web based platforms like Yahoo! Gmail, and Hotmal. Free, web based email platforms are usually easy to use and user friendly. It usually comes with limited storage space, but you can always upgrade it to paid service if you feel that the storage space is not enough for you to use.

Staying confident can be quite a feat especially when there are alot of people around you who emits nothing but negative vibes. I’m one of those people who feels that it’s challenging to stay confident and motivated as people that I happen to associated with are usually not only negative minded but have serious superiority complex too. That sort of people can really affect my mood and confidence.

It’s pretty disheartening, and more often than not, I find myself feeling depressed and stressed up over people’s comments and whatnot.Whoever says words can’t hurt you, obviously have no idea what they’re talking about.

But I realize that that’s a wrong to be affected badly that way, and so I do what I can to maintain a positive attitude towards everything, even when people try to bring me down or criticize me for everything that I do.

Here’s sharing how you can stay positive despite of the negative vibes people are sending to you:

• Try to ignore people who try to dishearten you. Focus only on things that matters. Trust me, it makes a lot of difference in your life.
• Some people loves to make fun of the way you look, so looking good can sometimes boost your confidence whenever you face people who tendency to criticize you. Use natural skin care to maintain good looking and healthy skin.
• Maintain a healthy lifestyle so that your body will always be healthy. A healthy mind starts from a healthy body.
• Speak up against people who tries to push you down or discourage you. Being a doormat and keeping quiet does no good to your confidence. You need to speak up so that they don’t take you as a pushover.

Negative people will always be around, and you will always find individuals who will try to diminish your confidence in any way that they can, especially if you’re in the corporate world. Don’t let all these people affect your mood and your perception towards life. Remember, be confident always, and focus on things that really matters.

‘The Garden of Madness’ is a fantastical, mysterious and romantic retelling of the Biblical story in the Book of Daniels about the crazy King Nebuchadnezzar’s of Babylon. This story revolves around the crazy king’s daughter. There’s nothing not to like about this book, and I probably enjoyed this fiction as much as the retelling of the Biblical Queen Esther or Persia.

Highly intriguing and vivid, and left almost nothing to the imagination. I absolutely love this story, and I have to say that I admired the strengh and the courage of the heroine in this story.

Kudos to the author for such a wonderful masterpiece. I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommends this book to those who love Biblical retellings or stories that involves the characters in the Bible.

I rate this book 5 star. I received an ARC of this book from Thomas Nelson and I was not compensated in any ways for writing this review.

Book description:

The Untold Story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s Daughter.

For seven years the Babylonian princess Tiamat has waited for the mad king Nebuchadnezzar to return to his family and to his kingdom. Driven from his throne to live as a beast, he prowls his luxurious Hanging Gardens, secreted away from the world.

Since her treaty marriage at a young age, Tia has lived an indulgent palace life. But when her husband dies and a nobleman is found murdered in the palace, Tia must discover who is responsible for the macabre death, even if her own newfound freedom is threatened.

As the queen plans to wed Tia to yet another prince, the powerful mage Shadir plots to expose the family’s secret and set his own man on the throne. Tia enlists the help of a reluctant Jewish captive, her late husband’s brother Pedaiah, who challenges her notions of the gods even as he opens her heart to both truth and love.

Ladies, would you choose a C-section birth or a natural hospital birth when you deliver your baby? I know a lot of ladies opt for C-section delivery to deliver their babies as they think that C-section is much safer and pain-free. Well, C-section is not any safer than natural birth. And it’s not pain-free either. It’s just that you’ll be knocked out by anaesthetic before the procedures.

All deliveries are painful, actually. It’s just that painkillers are properly administered during C-section and you won’t be conscious during the procedure unless you request to be awake during the entire process. You may, or may not realise this, but truth be told, C-section is the most invasive form of childbirth.

Anyway, I believe that childbirth is a process that should be treated with respect and dignity. No one should make fun of childbirth and every women has the rights to make an informed decision surrounding the birth of her baby.

I always believe that whatever kind of childbirth a mother chooses, it should not be made a traumatic event. Childbirth is a beautiful journey. It shouldn’t be a nightmare for all mothers.

I always believe in gentle birthing… or water birth, and I would have opt for a water birth if I was well informed about it back then when I was pregnant with my baby. Medically speaking, there’s a lot of benefit for mothers who chooses water birth. It helps to relieve contraction pain during labour naturally and allow less medical and drug intervention during the process. Water birth also helps the baby, as the warm water resembles the intra-uterine environment allow the transition from the birth canal to the outside world be less shocking and traumatising for the baby.

Sadly for me, when I was pregnant, I did not have much support in regards of gentle birthing, hypno- birthing or water birthing, what more access to information on various child-birthing procedures and option. I was forced to deliver my baby the the only way I was told how: vaginal birth, and I kinda regret and feel wistful about it. My experience in childbirth was rather traumatising and invasive. And I did not enjoy the process or see the whole thing as something beautiful. In fact, I had nightmares for months after the delivery.

These days, there’s a lot of childbirth options available in the hospital. Do look it up if you’re expecting a baby. It’s always good to know the options that you have before welcoming your baby into the world.

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My mother kept a scrapbook where she kept pictures of me during various stages of growing up, and I happened to stumble upon it in the attic the other day when I visited her. I was surprised that it’s still in good condition, apart from the yellowing of the pages and cover.

Seeing the scrapbook, I gather that I was quite a fussy and grumpy baby whenever I’m among the crowds, and I could be seen attaching myself like a little koala bear to either my mum or dad during family gatherings or parties. There’s hardly pictures of me smiling sweetly at the camera. I look sulky and near to crying.

But that all changed when I grew up a little bit. I was five years old when I started enjoying the crowd’s attention, especially from my family and loved ones though I can still be a bit shy among strangers.

There’s this one particular picture that almost slipped from my memories. It was my first formal Christmas party. I was wearing a midnight blue dress adorned with glittering silver stars. My mother made the dress for me. She sew them for nights as a Christmas present for me, and I’ve worn it to my first formal Christmas party hosted by our distant relatives.

I could still remember how envious my cousins are, and how my mother beamed with pride during the party. The dress was truly exquisite.

I did not know how long my mother spent to make that dress for me, but I could still remember that she spent a lot of sleepless nights, burning the midnight oil just to make that dress for me. Mothers these days are so lucky that they can actually order custom-made kids fancy dress for their precious children. I couldn’t imagine myself sewing for my sons or my daughters the way my mother did. I’d probably give up half way through, considering that patience and attentiveness is not my forte.