Mother Talk Blog Tour: The Reincarnationist

Do you believe in reincarnation? Have you ever remembered something from a past life? Is deja vu a regular part of your days? Well those are all a part wound into the mystery in the new book I joined this Mother Talk Blog Tour for.

"The Reincarnationist" by M.J. Rose breaks through the barriers of time, places, and even people taking you from ancient Rome to modern day New York City. In fact, I'm sorry to say that it takes place in so many times, places, and people that it's hard to know whether you're becoming engrossed in the modern day drama of a photographer haunted by memories, the tragic ancient saga of two forbidden lovers, or the early 1800's mystery surrounding a brother and sister parted by evil intentions. While most of the chapters warn you ahead of time whose story you will be following, there are a few times when flashes take you backwards while you're completely embroiled in what's going on in the present day. Just when you're getting into what's happening to one character you are suddenly another one and kind of going "Huh?".

While I love the concept of this book, there is just too much going on for me to enjoy reading it. My thoughts are that the book would have went just as well if it had simply stuck with a more mellow plot line. What plot line you ask? Well The Reincarnationist is a suspense novel meaning there are twists and turns aplenty before you find out the who, the how, and the why.

Let me guess, you figured I was just talking about a book on reincarnation that just was too busy right? Ha, that's what you get for thinking! My thoughts are that M.J. Rose's main point in this book is to fill the reader with suspense wondering what will happen, why everything is happening, who is causing it to happen, and whether or not there will be a happy ending for anyone?

The book just wasn't the right fit for me but I know many of my fellow Mother Talk bloggers really enjoyed it so maybe it's a book more for suspense novel enthusiasts that might have a taste for reincarnation or the "improbable". As I said, I really like the subject of reincarnation and the idea of past lives being used as the premise of this novel. While I personally don't have memories from another era that haunt me, I have known people who do and it's a very fascinating subject. Meeting a child and just knowing that they have an "old soul" is humbling and amazing to say the least.

So it seems I have finally read my first book through Mother Talk that I will have to say I didn't like much at all. It was bound to happen but not because I consider this a bad book. The intricate and classy dustjacket alone is reason enough to pick up the book and I have no doubt that it will do quite well on the seller's lists. I'm sure it's a good book just not MY kind of book was all. I'm still thankful to have had a chance to read it and will still seek out other books from M.J. Rose to try reading.

Let Them Eat Cake!!!...With Veggies!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not big on the whole cooking thing. I usually cook for one reason alone...because I have to. I’m the mom and it’s part of the job description but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!

Currently I have around ten cookbooks sitting all neat and new on my kitchen counter collecting dust as we speak. They were either bought for me or by me in hopes of sparking that "Betty Crocker" instinct in me. Nope, never happened but I’m still always willing to give it a try.

So when Mother Talk said they were doing a Blog Tour for the cookbook, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and that it's premise is helping you sneak veggies into your family’s food by using purees, I had to see if maybe this was finally the cookbook to get me cooking.

Did it work? Well, it got my five year old to look through the book and actually ask me to make him many of the recipes just because the pictures looked “yummy”.

After I informed him that you put butternut squash, cauliflower, and even carrots in some of the recipes he believe it or not still wanted me to make them! When I told my two teenagers about the recipes they informed me that as long as it didn’t taste or look funny they didn’t care. So with all that in mind I decided it was time for me to try to do some “deliciously deceptive” cooking!

The first recipe we tried were the Rice Balls at my 5 year old’s request. I decided to go with the butternut squash puree since I had just bought a really huge one to try cooking for the first time. I'll be honest and say that much to our surprise, the rice balls tasted really good. My only complaint was that they were a little dry but none of the kids seemed to notice and all three of them ate the whole batch!

Encouraged such a great response to the Rice Balls, I decided to try a Breakfast recipe next. This time I chose the recipe myself and went for the Banana Bread mainly because I have my own personal recipe that I really love and I wanted to see what the difference would be like. The recipe itself was very easy to make and only included a cauliflower puree. The end result was a very nice and moist bread and you could so totally NOT taste the cauliflower in it!! My 16 year old absolutely abhorrs cauliflower and he still ate two more pieces after I told him what was in it!

So I have finally found a cookbook that I can say I will definitely be using more than once and happily too. Every parent wants a child who will eat all their fruits and vegetables. The reality is that most of us are lucky if we can get our kids to eat even one vegetable and a few fruits. With Deceptively Delicious you can make both parents and the kids happy by giving them yummy foods they’ll enjoy and the nutrients we parents know they need.

Make sure you enter the Deceptively Delicious Sweepstakes at Harper Collins for a chance to win your own copy of the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. Cool right?! If you know someone with a picky eater then this might be a great Christmas present for them this year. Just think, a present that everyone thanks you for! Talk about a gift giving first!

Now fess up, have you ever tricked your kids into eating something because you knew it was for their own good? If so, what?

Review AND Giveaway- Little Adventures Dress Ups

Recently I had a chance to talk to one of the great folks from Little Adventures, a company started by two moms who had realized that there was a need for good quality dress up clothes at affordable prices people could afford. The rest as they say is history!

Little Adventures makes some of the best costumes I've seen in a long time so it only made sense for me to do a review for their little Fireman dress up right? I am so glad I did and I can only say that the quality of it is so awesome! Made of quality fabrics this dress up set came with a durable plastic hat, pants with elastic waistband, and a fireman's coat with shiny stripes and badge on it.

I also like how they use wide Velcro strips instead of little buttons or ties that are harder for little hands to fasten. MonkeyBoy can put his outfit on and take it off anytime he wants without having to wait for Mommy to help him. All of their sets are like this and that includes the ones for the little girl's as well.

Each dress up is completely machine washable and dryable. Trust me, these are not going to fall apart just because you wash them. MonkeyBoy's fireman set has already been washed twice and it isn't coming apart anytime soon.

Little Adventures makes capes, princess dress ups, accessories, fireman sets, and many many more! I would highly recommend contacting one of their online retailers (or maybe consider becoming one yourself) and getting one of their great dress up sets for your little boy or girl to use as a Halloween costume and then an ever after dress up.

Oh wait, you noticed the word "giveaway" in the title didn't you? You didn't think I was just posting a review here on LWH without reason did you?

Well since you patiently read the whole review (you did RIGHT??) AND Halloween is just around the corner, how would you like the fact that Little Adventures also gave me one of their Deluxe Cinderella Dress Ups (picture on the right) plus the Choker and Headband set (below on the left) for one of my lucky readers to win?!

The Deluxe Cinderella set is a little girl's dream come true when it comes to a Halloween costume AND Princess dress up! There are no itchy fabrics or underskirts to bother your sweety, each dress comes with completely finished seams and hems, and as I said before the whole thing is machine washable.

This giveaway will be for ONE Cinderella and Accessory Set size 5-7 years but you will have a chance on two of my blogs to win it.

So would you like to know how one of you lucky folks can win this set for your little princess? Well I am going to give you up to THREE chances here to win until October 10th when I will be randomly choosing a winner and then mailing the costume out Priority Mail -

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite all time dress up set/costume was as a kid.

2) You don’t need to be a blogger to enter, but if you are blog about the contest, and link to this contest post and Little Adventures. Then email me at sonacreidhereviewsATgmailDOTcom with the URL link to your post. The contest must be in it's own post not attached to the end of one.

3) Write about this contest in a MySpace bulletin telling all your friends about this contest then email me your username there to sonacreidhereviewsATgmailDOTcom

Sorry but this contest is only open to residents of the United States (unless my Canadian readers aren't worried about getting it by Halloween- let me know).

So what are you waiting for? Don't think you can hide the Cinderella pictures from your little princess by passing up my blog. Just won't happen and she will be mad at you for not trying to win! I'll tell on you, yes I will!

psstt head over to Life With Heathens for three more chances to win this!!

PLEASE LEAVE ME A WAY TO CONTACT YOU!! IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE AN EMAIL OR LINK TO YOUR BLOG I CAN NOT CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN! (MD and AW ladies just leaving your username there is fine)