"Hot Buttons" Review {Giveaway}

*Don’t miss my other giveaway going on for
Julie Lessman’s newest book A Light in the Window*

About the book: 

Nicole O'Dell helps address the Hot Buttons in teens' lives before the issues become problems

From dating to drugs, modesty to purity, morals to popularity, teens face all sorts of tough issues. How teens respond to these hot-button issues can have lasting effects on who they want to be and who they actually become. What if parents can help their teens prepare for these hot buttons-before the issues become a problem?

The uniquely packaged Hot Buttons Series is an accessible, quick-reference resource that parents can use to equip their children to make the right decisions, even in the face of peer pressure and outside influences. More than just another how-to manual, Hot Button Dating Edition offers practical real-life situations that parents can read and discuss with their preteens. Topics include: physical activity, missionary dating, and violence/abuse in dating relationships.

Author, mom, and broadcaster, Nicole O'Dell provides short scenarios followed by three or four responses that a teen might choose in that particular situation. Parents are then encouraged to help their children explore the issue, ask questions, and discuss the options, so when a similar situation comes up in real life, the teens are already prepared to respond.

Hot Buttons Dating Edition offers practical real-life situations that parents can read and discuss with their preteens. Topics include: physical activity, missionary dating, and violence/abuse in dating relationships.

Hot Buttons Internet Edition helps parents prepare their teens for online challenges they may face. Topics discussed include: internet activity, file sharing, social networking, and internet predators.

Hot Buttons Drug Edition braves the scary world of substance abuse, equipping parents with facts, warning signs, and real-world scenarios on: alcohol; Marijuana and other drugs; inhalants; and prescription drugs.

Hot Buttons Sexuality Edition offers the facts about teen sexuality, backed by statistics; specifics for how to talk frankly about sex with your kids, discussion about the growth of homosexuality and bisexuality among teens; and compassionate advice for guiding your teen to reclaim purity.

My thoughts:

If you have kids, you need these books. As a parent, I get how hard it can be to bring up these topics and have meaningful conversations. Nicole O'Dell does an amazing job of breaking down the tough stuff into little bites, just perfect for busy parents. And the books themselves are smaller sized, just the right size to toss in your purse and read while waiting in the car at piano or picking up kids at soccer practice. 

Each book is divided into four sections: Hot Button Topics, Identifying Hot Button Topics, Pressing the Hot Button Topics and Parent-Teen Study Guide. She then breaks it down further by listing Warning Signs, Action Steps, Check Points and even quick bullet point prayers for you and your children. In her Strategic Scenarios, Nicole gives you talking points and questions to ask to get your kids to open up and have that conversation. The last part of the book covers confessions, forgiveness and great resources to explore each topic further.  

From drinking and dating, social media and pornography, purity and homosexuality - these books are an awesome resource for parents today. Just because we don't want to cover these topics, doesn't mean we don't have to... Hot Buttons will make it easier to talk to your kids before they hear it from someone else.

About the author:   

Youth-culture expert, Nicole O'Dell is the host of Choose NOW Radio: Parent Talk and Teen Talk and the founder of Choose NOW Ministries, dedicated to guiding teens through tough issues and helping parents encourage good decisions.

On air, O'Dell covers peer pressure, dating, purity, drugs, alcohol, modesty, popularity, and anything else that comes up along the way. Nicole writes and speaks to preteens, teenagers, and parents about how to prepare for life's tough choices.

As an author, O'Dell writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her popular YA fiction includes the Diamond Estate Series and the Scenarios for Girls interactive books that feature alternate endings, allowing young girls to decide the outcome for the main character. Her nonfiction for teens includes Girl Talk, which she wrote with her two daughters based on their popular advice column.

While her YA resources encourage and equip teens, Nicole also works to bridge the communication gap between teens and their parents. The Hot Buttons series helps parents discuss tough issues with their tweens and teens before the issues pop up in real life. Watch for future Hot Buttons books on subjects like bullying, image, prejudice, friendships, politics, and more.

O'Dell, resides in Paxton, IL, with her husband and six children-the youngest of whom are toddler triplets.

Find out more about Nicole at http://nicoleodell.com.

Want more?

Don’t miss the live video chat with Nicole on November 1^st and your chance to win a $100 Visa Cash Card!

Listen to an interview with Nicole O’Dell on how to talk to your kids about sex:

See what others are saying about Hot Buttons.

Purchase any of the Hot Buttons books, and more by Nicole O'Dell, at her Amazon store. 

The prize and the fine print:

The winners will be mailed one (my choice of 4) Hot Buttons by Nicole O’Dell via media mail.

This mailing is limited to USA (including APO/FPO) and CAN addresses.  

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes. The opinions expressed are all mine and I was not required to give a positive review. 

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"A Light in the Window" Book Review {Giveaway}

*The October book giveaway winners have been announced! Congrats and thanks so much to everyone who visited and entered.*

In case you are new here, I will say it again: I am a huge fan of Julie Lessman! After reading both her Daughters of Boston and Winds of Change series, I am so excited she decided to write the prequel – Marcy's story...

A Light in the Window
One Woman. Two Men.
One stirs her pulse and the other her faith.
But who will win her heart?

Marceline Murphy is a gentle beauty with a well-founded aversion to rogues. But when two of Boston's most notorious pursue her, she encounters a tug-of-war of the heart she isn’t expecting. Sam O’Rourke is the childhood hero she’s pined for, the brother of her best friend and a member of the large, boisterous family to which she longs to be a part. So when his best friend Patrick O’Connor joins in pursuit of her affections, the choice seems all too clear. Sam is from a family of faith and Patrick is not, two rogues whose wild ways clash head-on with Marcy’s—both in her faith and in her heart.

While overseeing the Christmas play fundraiser for the St. Mary’s parish soup kitchen—A Light in the Window—Marcy not only wrestles with her attraction to both men, but with her concern for their spiritual welfare. The play is based on the Irish custom of placing a candle in the window on Christmas Eve to welcome the Holy Family, and for Marcy, its message becomes deeply personal. Her grandmother Mima cautions her to guard her heart for the type of man who will respond to the "light in the window," meaning the message of Christ in her heart. But when disaster strikes during the play, Marcy is destined to discover the truth of the play’s message first-hand when it becomes clear that although two men have professed their undying love, only one has truly responded to “the light in the window.”

 

My thoughts:  
Even if I had never heard of Julie Lessman before, just the fact that this book is labeled "An Irish Christmas Love Story" would have been enough to make me pick it up...

Writers amaze me. As someone who can't keep up with what is going on in my own life, I don't know how they keep all the characters and facts straight. Going 'back' and writing the love story that started two series? Julie Lessman is a genius!
  
I absolutely loved A Light in the Window! These characters have already become real to me over the past several books, so reading their love story was icing on the cake. Like anything Julie writes, you will go through tons of emotions. She has a way of writing that provokes you to feel what they are feeling and that is a gift. I find myself smiling, laughing, crying and yelling when reading her stories. 

Marcy's story did not disappoint me at all. It is filled with depth and emotion and even though (as someone who has read all the other books) I knew how it would end, it kept me guessing all the way to the end!

Thanks Julie and please (please, please!) write Gabe's story, too!

Note:

A Light in the Window is the prequel to The Daughters of Boston and Winds of Change series. If you have never read anything by Julie Lessman, start with this book. And I am sure I don’t have to say… if you have read EVERYTHING by Julie, you will have to read it!

About the author:
Julie Lessman is the popular author of A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied, as well as A Hope Undaunted, which was one of 2010's Booklist Top Ten Inspirational Fiction winners, and A Heart Revealed. Lessman has garnered several writing awards, including ten Romance Writers of America awards. She lives in Missouri.

The extras:
Check out Julie’s website for more great information, book excerpts and contests!

Don’t miss my reviews of Julie’s A Heart Revealed and A Love Surrendered.

The giveaway and fine print: 
The winner will receive a digital Kindle copy of Julie Lessman’s A Light in the Window.

A Light in the Window releases on November 9^th, pre-order your copy now! If you pre-order and then are chosen as the winner, I will send you an Amazon gift certificate instead.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes. The opinions expressed are all mine and I was not required to give a positive review. 

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October Winners!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered. I hope you enjoy your books!

Winners

Full Disclosure - Michelle

The Trouble With Cowboys - Cathy

When a Heart Stops - Elizabeth

You Don't Know Me - Karen

A Love Surrendered - Maxie

Come back tomorrow for your chance to win the latest
Julie Lessman book, A Light in the Window.

Love,

"A Love Surrendered" Book Review {Giveaway}

*October is book giveaway month!*
Don’t miss out on your chance win You Don’t Know Me by Susan May Warren and When a Heart Stops by Lynette Eason!

Do you remember those cheap romance novels you hid under the covers in high school, the ones that would get your heart pounding?  No? Well maybe that was just me… But Julie Lessman will get your heart rate up with her stories and without the trashy stuff!

A Love Surrendered
Orphaned in Iowa, Annie Kennedy moves to Boston to stay with her spinster aunt. She longs for romance to fill the void left by her parents' death. But when she falls hard for Steven O'Connor, the man who broke an engagement to her sister, Annie is worried.

Will he break her heart too when he discovers who she really is?

 

My thoughts:
While I might be a bit biased, since I have absolutely loved everything Julie Lessman has published, I really enjoyed A Love Surrendered. I am so thankful that Ms. Lessman writes fast and writes THICK books that take more than an hour to devour, because I hate for them to end!

I have been waiting for Steven’s story, as the last O’Connor, and I knew that I wouldn’t be disappointed. I don’t know how Julie Lessman does it, but she weaves such a tangled (in a good way!) story that draws you in and makes you laugh, cry, want to scream and even sigh in the same chapter!

I love Annie and my heart just about broke when... Well, I don’t want to give anything away, but I promise you will go through every emotion while reading and you will be sighing with me at the end of the book! 

Note:

While A Love Surrendered can be read as a standalone novel, if you LOVE a good story, I suggest you start with A Hope Undaunted, the first book in the Winds of Changes series. Or better yet, A Passion Most Pure, the first book in the Daughters of Boston series. (And don’t miss later in the month, when I will be reviewing and giving away a copy of A Light in the Window, the story of how it all began!)

About the author:
Julie Lessman is the popular author of A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied, as well as A Hope Undaunted, which was one of 2010's Booklist Top Ten Inspirational Fiction winners, and A Heart Revealed. Lessman has garnered several writing awards, including ten Romance Writers of America awards. She lives in Missouri.

The extras:
Check out Julie’s website for more great information, book excerpts and contests!

Don’t miss my review of Julie’s A Heart Revealed (the 2^nd book in the Winds of Change series).

The giveaway and fine print: 
The winner will receive a copy of Julie Lessman’s A Love Surrendered via media mail.  

A Love Surrendered is available October 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes. The opinions expressed are all mine and I was not required to give a positive review. 

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