Another Book Review

Pool of Souls is a story of a fantasy world named Regalis where evil sorcerer, Queen Saranor is working her way across the land using magic, terror and brutality to gain control. Her erstwhile commander, General Viadon, had defected and is now battling against her to save the land.

Cazlina Narzin has left her sleepy village to chase after her brother, Gareth, who left to join General Viadon'c crusade against the queen. Along with Caz is her horse, Miris, with whom she can telepathically communicate.

During her travels, a horse thief attempts to steal Miris while Caz is sleeping. Caz chases him off but he has an annoying habit of showing up to rescue her from beasts and beastly men.

After Caz finds General Viadon and her brother, she is conscripted into the general's army to work by his side as a scout, using her telepathic abilities to help her. She encounters wonderous beasts, heroes, villans and finally the queen's army and pool of souls.

I enjoyed the book. One of the gratifying characteristic is Landmark's writing style. She has such a good command of the English language and it was a pleasure to read a book that flowed well and was eloquent. I also enjoyed the story. It is always nice to see a heroine instead of a hero.

I do wish more information was provided on the horse thief, Jorin since he plays a substantial role in the story. I also had a hard time believing a general of such a huge army would take Caz under his wing and make her part of his inner circle. Granted, much of it was due to her gift of aminal communication, but she used it sparingly and didn't use it at times it would have provided useful. The ending was a bit too nice for my tastes. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't go further, but I do wish it were a bit grittier.

The ending seemed to hint at a sequal. I would love to read it and, hopefully, learn more about Caz's gift and Jorin's past.

I give this 3 stars out of 5.

The Children's Museum

Back in November, we took the kids to the Children's Museum while Pops and Grammy were visiting us. We had never been before and found it to be lots of fun and worth the admission price.






There is a huge plexi and rope climbing build in the middle of the museum. Stasiu alone could have spent hours here.








Bohdan was a little anxious about it, but still managed to go on it and crawl around.

There is a construction area where you can use the equipment to move items around. Here, Daddy is helping Bohdan use a crane to move wood and blocks around.






Bohdan rode the pint sized crane.


Chris tried to build an arch using the blocks provided. Pops is "helping".

Bohdan was able to practice his handwriting using a back-lit desk.


A huge stegosaurus made of found items sits upstairs.


Ferb, I know what we are going to do today.

Stasiu loved the wind tunnel.


Big car, little head.



Daddy tried, unsuccessfully, to land the shuttle. Maybe next time!



His name in lights.

Me? A Book Reviewer?

I recently joined a blog called, you guessed it, The Book Nook Club. The purpose of it is to review published or not yet published books, write reviews and post them. The reviewers come from all walks of life and are "average joes". None of us have training in editing but we all share a love of books, reading and discovering new authors.

I am a voracious reader as it is. Last year, I started reading only free books from kindle. Boy, was that a bad idea. The majority of them are b. a. d. I mean, really, really bad. I thought my brain had started to atrophy. Lo and behold my friend, Carol, tells me about this wonderful blog where authors submit their books for review. It's free, it's good reading and I'm involved in a community that cares about books and reading as much as I do. Jackpot!

I just finished my first review of a book titled Grace. It is a story of mob wives done wrong by their husbands. It was a fun, interesting and heartwarming read. You can read my review here.