New Releases, Free & Bargain Books Link-up 2 September 2016

How are you all this week?  It's September already and the kids are back to school on Monday.  I don't know whether to be happy or sad about that.  Each summer school holiday is a kind of milestone as they grow up a little more and a little further away from you.

If you're feeling a bit "emosh" as the teen's say, why not lose yourself in a book?  You'll need something to do in between watching the X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, Victoria and, probably, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, won't you?

I'll bet the judges are all reading their Kindles when the camera stops rolling.

As ever, there are some great books to choose from on this week's linky.

Sharing the Love of Books
Enjoy our selection of New Releases / Free & Bargain Books this week

Authors please feel free to add your own books
Readers please free to add your own finds
(any genre except erotica welcome)

This weekly link up is hosted by Beck Valley Books & these awesome book loving blogs...
Monday
 Life as Leels | IrishdaisylovesRomance | Book Babble | All Romance Reader
Tuesday
It's My Side of Life | Celticlady's Reviews | First Time Mommy Adventures 
Wednesday
Beck Valley Books | Cinnamon Hollow Reviews
Thursday
Miki's Hope | Nicki's Nook
Friday
Ebook Addicts | I Love Romance | Mother Distracted | Colorimetry | The Ultimate Fan Blog
Saturday
Totally Addicted to Reading | 3 Partners in Shopping | Angie's Angle | I Create Purty Thangs | Wishful Endings
Sunday
Lynchburg Mama | LibriAmoriMiei | Ali - The Dragon Slayer | Wondermom Wannabe | Deal Sharing Aunt | Rambling Reviews 

For Pre-orders post - PRE-ORDER / genre / title /author

For New Releases post - NEW / genre / title / author

For Free Books post - FREE / genre / title / author / end date 

For Bargain Books post - SALE / price / genre / title / author / end date
(Strictly no Erotica please.  Steamy romance is fine but watch those covers people, incase any underage child is viewing it!)

Click here for this weeks awesome selection!

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Wow. What An Insult.

If there's one word lately that's guaranteed to make my hackles rise (and it doesn't take much, as you know), it's people using the word "wow" to express incredulity, disagreement and wonderment at your (unstated) level of stupidity.

Beware keyboard warriors typing "wow"

It's become a linguistic shorthand for "you complete idiot, I have a pot plant with a higher IQ than you".

Are we really all so terrified about giving a contrary opinion that we have to hide behind "wow"?  It's worse than LOL which shouldn't, in my humble opinion, be used by anyone over 12, even though I do it all the time.

"Wow" makes you sound like a moody adolescent with an addiction to US sitcom box-sets.  "Wow-ers" can probably quote every single episode of Friends off by heart.

There's something really passive-aggressive about "wow", particularly on Facebook.  You can almost feel the sneer looming out of your PC screen whilst you know that, to your face, the "wow-er" would probably stutter, retract their statement or quickly justify the reason why they think you're a pillock.

"Wow-ing" is trolling-lite for the sanctimonious.  You see it all the time.  Someone will post a selfie of themselves in a new dress - "oh wow, you must really have lost some weight to fit in that".

Or, on the online parenting forums, any move away from the accepted parenting methods (usually from Chelsea and involving flowery wellies and a Joules raincoat, plus beards - lots of beards), will set the "wow-ing" off.

"I let little Sinjin miss his morning nap to take him to Junior Polo".  "Wow - I'd never be so cavalier with Paraphernalia's and Juxtaposition's naps. They'd just be Impossible".

Everyone's doing it but it's a shame we've lost the art of the good old fashioned insult lobed with wit and intelligence.

You think I'm talking rubbish?

Wow.  Just wow.

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Book review: Mindful Mama: Happy Baby - Calming Techniques For Both Of You

Becoming a new parent can, it goes without saying, be extremely stressful and wouldn't it be great to have a manual to hand which explains how to gain your inner calm back - and, better still, to pass that calmness onto your baby or toddler?

I've recently discovered a new book, "Mindful Mama: Happy Baby Over 60 calming techniques and creative activities for babies and toddlers by Maja Pitamic and Susannah Marriott" which would have been a great help to me when Caitlin and Ieuan were younger.

Mindful Mama: Happy Baby, published by Modern Books, RRP £12.99, 25th August 2016

I'm sure you have heard of the concept of mindfulness, which involves living in the present moment and directing your focus to whatever you are doing, thus removing your ability to worry and stress about things because it is impossible to do both at the same time.  Believe me I've tried!

There's no doubt in my mind that parents pass their stresses, and their stress related behaviour on to their kids and, despite some recent media reports claiming mindfulness is not as effective as it's claimed, my personal belief is that it is an extremely useful technique to use in all walks of life.

New parenthood tests not only our bodies but particularly our minds.  Nothing prepares you for the feelings you have when you become a parent and mindfulness is a great way of remaining calm and keeping a sense of perspective.

Mindful Mama: Happy Baby is a practical and accessible guide for new parents, designed to give you the skills to calmly navigate the early years of child rearing, from birth to three years of age.

The authors say that 'mindful parenting' makes time for meaningful interactions with your child, which have a profound effect on bonding during the crucial developmental stages.

Their techniques focus on the well-being of both parent and child, and help to bring peace and perspective to the emotional whirlwind of having a new baby.

The activities in the book are suitable for children (both boys and girls) from birth to 3 and each chapter contains activities for a specific age group.

The first chapter contains mindfulness meditations, visualisations and movement exercises to help you to adjust to your new role as a parent.

The activities in subsequent chapters are based on Montessori principles of learning through experience. As your baby grows into a toddler, the exercises change to allow their particular age group to fully explore the world around them and engage their senses in a fun and playful way.

The authors explain that playing with a child with awareness daily is the most mindful thing we can do as parents. It shows children we are available and passes on the self-acceptance that comes with engaging fully with an activity. As children reveal their personalities and unique ways of doing things so we learn from them, our relationships with them become richer

Both practical and inspiring, Mindful Mama: Happy Baby gives you and your child the building blocks for an enjoyable and mindful first few years.

The book contains:-

*Over 60 mindful activities and play ideas for bonding with your child

*Sensory games, songs, dances and outdoor activities to share

*Advice on nurturing, feeding, bathing, sleeping and carrying

*Meditative techniques to relax your mind and keep you calm

I really like this book and it would make a great gift for a new parent, as well as being a worthwhile investment for yourself. Dads may benefit equally from the exercises too!

Maja Pitamic is the author of I Can Do It, the successful Montessori activity book for ages three to five, as well as the co-author of I Can Make Music, Modern Art Adventures and 3D Art Adventures. Susannah Marriott is a freelance author and mother of three. Her books include Green Babycare, Natural Pregnancy, Pregnancy Herbal and The Pregnancy and Baby Book.

You can order Mindful Mama: Happy Baby (£12.99) from www.amazon.co.uk/Mindful-Mama-Techniques-Creative-Activities/dp/1906761833 or by telephoning the publisher, Modern Books, on 01256 302 692.

*A proof copy was received for the purpose of this review

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Get Ready For School With Nadiya's Lunch Box Hacks

With back to school just around the corner, BBC Good Food Show star, Nadiya Hussain, has shared her favourite lunchbox hacks.

Nadiya says:

"In between waking and dressing my three, lively children, preparing breakfast for the family, finishing emails and doing laundry, making up pack lunches in the morning is often a rather rushed job. I’m not a fan of filling their boxes, or their stomachs with junk food. I will not lie, there have been times where I have just given the kids the easiest option, a packet of crisps, a small bar of chocolate, a biscuit (or two) and I still do every now and again but these treats are saved for the weekend.

The reason being, I noticed when at home that the kids were like yoyos. After school they would slumped, tired and exhausted from the day on the sofa. As I would rush around preparing the dinner they had a quick sweet treat and would instantly become high as kites and excitable. This excitement would last for 30 minutes or so, and be quickly followed by a huge sugar crash. It then dawned on me that the same would be happening to them whilst at school and of course I didn’t want my food choices for them to affect their concentration and behaviour at school.

To save me time, I always have a few snacks ready in the fridge that I can to pop in, ensuring that they eat well whilst away from home. I also have some great suggestions for quick and easy bites that can be made in the morning.

Here is a list of a few of our favourites:

1. Hummus Celery Sticks – cut slices of celery sticks about 2 inches long. Fill the inside with hummus and wrap with cling film.

2. Summer fruit spring rolls – take a circle of rice paper and soak for a few seconds till soft. Squeeze off any excess water and place down. Add any fruit, the more colourful the better and warp like a spring roll. Wrap in tin foil for the perfect lunch box surprise.

3. It might sounds obvious but I sometimes pop in a hardboiled egg – I like to keep boiled eggs in the fridge during the week. They are quick, simple and nutritious and very easy to eat. Wrap in kitchen roll to ensure the kids have something to peel the shell on to.

4. Turkey ham wrapped cheese sticks – take a small stick of cheese and wrap around a slice of turkey ham! Simple and delicious

5. Apple and Peanut Rings – core and horizontally slice a green apple, spread the tops with smooth peanut butter and pop into a mini Tupperware box.

Nadiya Hussein

6. Mini omelettes – whisk up some eggs and add onion, cheese, chives and chopped peppers. Grease and pour the mix into a 12 muffin cupcake tin and bake in the oven until cooked. Once cooled these be stored for a week and my kids love them!"

These are really simple and look much better alternatives than biscuits when the kids come home from school starving.  You can find more lunchbox tips here.

Nadiya will be cooking live at the BBC Good Food Show London – Olympia 11-13 November and Birmingham – NEC 24-27 November. Tickets on sale now: https://www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com

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The Bad Mother's 21 Point Guide To Knowing When To Send The Kids Back To School

1.  It says term starts on a day in September somewhere on a piece of paper that has been in the bottom of your bag since July.  You will obviously have to check this rumour with all the other mums via Facebook.

2. Vast swathes of Valencia filtered holiday photos featuring happy children in water parks have started to appear in your Instagram feed.  Each photo is accompanied by a minimum of 20 hastags #OhPants.

3. You have watched every single episode of Horrid Henry and Mr Bean and now wince when you hear the opening music.

4. You cannot face another kids' meal containing battered cod or chicken.

5.  You have resorted to making rude faces with the sweets that come with the kids' ice cream - in the kids' ice cream.

6.  The kids have actually just read a book voluntarily

7.  You've put on 10 pounds from snacking with the kids - elevenses, three'ses and that strange half hour before tea where you know you shouldn't feed them but CAN'T TAKE THE MOANING ANY MORE.

8.  Having failed to deliver on 90% of the promises you made before the holiday started (yes we will canter through white capped waves at dawn before frying our own breakfast on a camping stove), you cave in and agree to take them to the local cinema for the latest kiddy flick and a £15 bag of pick 'n' mix.

9.  You are happily referring to red wine as "mummy's special squash".

10.  The bottom of your handbag is a sticky morass of spilt brown sugar from coffee shop packets which have combined to create a caramel so strong you could stick yourself to the ceiling with it.

This makes finding the bit of paper with the term dates on even more tricky [see point 1]

11.  Rather than Mary Poppins, you now resemble a woman on the edge after 6 weeks of terrible PMS and the only thing that is cheering you up is the fact that you'll soon be able to spend more time with adults somewhere that doesn't have a ball pit or carry the risk of deafness simply by entering the building.

12.  Reading weepy posts from mothers missing their children before 9 am on the first day back is making you question whether you accidentally took someone else's children home from the hospital.

13.  Your book "30 minutes to a cleaner home" is now buried under a pile of school shoe boxes, crisp packets and guarded by Shopkins.

14.  Shopkins are everywhere.

15.  They are starting to look at you with their little evil eyes, particularly Linda Layercake which was apparently named after you.

16.  You develop an unholy terror of Claire's Accessories.

17.  Along with your terrible case of "Lego Foot".

18. You start to feel uncharacteristically wistful and even tearful at the thought of sending the kids back to school.

19.  Combined with an unearthly sense of jubilation that you have survived!

20.  You unearth your Ugg-alikes just to see the horror on our husband's face and you practise the 'mum bun' for the right degree of dishevelment.

21.  Weirdly,  you feel compelled to work out how many days until half term because, if you're honest, you don't mind the kids really, plus having them home is an excuse to eat crisps.

Celebrate your maternal feelings I say!  Have a great new term.

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Review: Wicked Uncle Toys - Devilishly Easy To Use

When I was young, shopping for toys involved perusing the shelves in your local department store throughout the year or, come Christmas, dragging your parents around the overheated, fake snow and glitter filled grottos for Santa.

It's the heat I remember mostly.  There was always a pensioner having a fit of the vapours parked precariously on a chair just outside whilst the staff fanned them with a towel.  Air conditioning was just a distant dream.

As my sister Sarah and I got older, our relatives just gave up trying to guess what we liked and gave us vouchers.  Now fond as I am of a voucher, it's just not the same as being given a present which tugs at the heart strings because it's just what you wanted and it's right for your age.

Today, more than ever, matching the toy to the child's age requires a mathematical equation not dissimilar to getting the Hadron Particle Collider to work which is probably easier sometimes than finding a child's gift what will keep them entertained for more than 2 minutes.

So I was intrigued when the devilishly named Wicked Uncle wrote to me and suggested a solution. They have a website filled with an amazing mix of gifts for children of all ages, sorted by age, category or gender.

This is not only useful for buying presents for your own and other kids in the family but a very useful solution to that bane of parents' term-time lives - deciding what gift to give at a children's party, what budget is right (without being considered mean) and whether that gift is suitable for their age.

I frequently ask Caitlin and Ieuan "but what does so-and-so like?" to be greeted either by a shrug of the shoulders or 'Shopkins' (the modern day equivalent of the Tribble from Star Trek).

Wicked Uncle kindly gave us a budget of £40 to road-test their site and so Caitlin and Ieuan were given £20 to choose their own gift.

There was, in fact, so much choice that Ieuan was quite overwhelmed with it all and I had to choose for him.

The website is really simple to use -

Simply select the relevant criteria for the child you're buying for to be taking to an appropriate selection of gifts.

Then choose the category of gift you think they might like.  I particularly liked that the girls' gifts included as many science / maths / experiment gifts as the boys'.  Whilst there are enough 'traditionally girly' gifts to delight your average pony / kitten/ pink loving girl, there are equally plenty of gifts to stimulate their minds and help with the school curriculum.

Caitlin chose Shadow, a Lavish Lanky Cat  (£12.95) which is a gorgeously soft, floppy toy cat with baleful green eyes.

She also chose the My Very Own Fairy & Unicorn Torch & Projector (£6.95).

The latter is a fun torch that projects images of fairies and unicorns around your room. It has 24 colour images to project on to your walls and ceilings including fairies, unicorns and their magical homes.

The images project up to one metre wide and come on three slide discs you simply slot in. You can also use it as a normal torch without the slides in place and is useful for keeping on bedside tables to give comfort to children during the night.

I chose for Ieuan and got him the Night Goggles Spy Gear (£19.95).  These have tinted blue lenses to enhance night vision and a switch on full mode which gives directional beams of bright LED light, leaving both hands free to explore.

You can also flip out the scope with it's 2x magnifying lens to spot targets from greater distances.

Needless to say we have had to promise to take him to the woods at dusk so he can scare the living daylights out of any dog walker out for a pleasant evening stroll.

Our gifts arrived really quickly (within 48 hours) of ordering and were securely packaged.  There is even a rather cute postcard included in the box addressed to the gift-giver.

And, as for the acid test, both kids are still playing with their toys 3 days later and Ieuan has not managed to break his Night Goggles yet.



I was impressed by Wicked Uncle and I think their site will be a godsend this Christmas for choosing presents for kids which will pique their imagination without emptying your purse.

You can find out more at www.wickeduncle.co.uk.

*We were given £40 to spend at Wicked Uncle for the purposes of this review.

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Review: Necta Perfecta Beautifying Mask By Bee Good

When I was much younger, we used to holiday in Dolgellau, mid Wales and the gift shops used to be full of gorgeous smelling creams and lotions made from local honey.  I can still smell that wonderful warm and comforting honeyed scent now.

Fast forward a few (cough) years and I haven't managed to find anything that captured the same home-grown, organic, good for you, honey-scented luxury cosmetic feel until now.

In fact, I discovered Bee Good's Necta Perfecta via a review by one of my favourite bloggers, Rachel Montague-Ebbs (LadyM) and Bee Good were kind enough to send me a sample to try for myself.

Necta Perfecta is a 4-in-1 face and body enzyme mask which you can use

- as a weekly scalp treatment to promote overall hair and scalp hydration

- as a facial complexion booster to refine, hydrate and visibly improve skin suppleness whilst actively targeting the signs of ageing

- as a hand rescue remedy to moisturise and restore vitality to hands and cuticles

- as an SOS mask for sore, dry or challenged skin on areas such as elbows, knees and feet to soften and gently remove dead skin cells.

It's made by awarding winning company Bee Good who launched their range in 2013 inspired by Simon, their expert beekeeper.  They are encouraging everyone to plant a meadow, even if it's a few bee friendly flowers - and my package contained a bee-mix seedball containing seeeds of Birdsfoot Trefoil, Red Clover, Wild Marjoram and Echium.

There was also a little package of very cute bee chocolates which did indeed taste of honey.

Necta Perfecta contains:-

* natural alpha hydroxyl acids from 5 fruit enzymes
* wheatgerm oil, rich in Vitamin E
* a blend of British honey and beeswax with three natural waxes, jojoba, mimosa and sunflower
* British Propolis and the wonder ingredient Bisabolol which is naturally found in Chamomile

I tried the product as a facial mask and left it on for 20 minutes.  I was expecting it to smell divine (it does) and to soften my skin (certainly does), but I was surprised to find that it left my skin firmer, clearer and had removed the dry skin from the two annoying small patches that have been troubling me around my mouth.

This is one of those products which, though luxurious, is the kind of go-to you can rely on when all else fails. I am rubbish at sticking to a consistent skincare routine (I have two kids, did I mention that?) but it's good to know that there are products you can turn to that will work.

I also love that Bee Good has a great ethos without being preachy and it's British - the beeswax, propolis and honey used in all their products comes from British bees.

I'll certainly be trying Necta Perfecta on my feet and hands and I may even try it on my scalp.  Lots of the 'performance' shampoos seem to be incredibly drying.

Plus,  I'll be doing my bit for the bees. Bee Good actively supports our British bees with charitable donations and by a support programme which includes the education of young beekeepers, supporting apprentice bee farmers and the planting of wildflower meadows across the UK.

Find out more at www.beegood.co.uk

*A PR sample for received for the purpose of this post.

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