Virginia Books

Become aware of life in the New World between invading Eurpeans and Native Americans in this beautifully and powerfully written book. It will inform and shock you with it insights into the two vastly different cultures and shed light on modern day American values that have often go astray. Another book of insight, passion and info on Native Americans is Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears by Cherokee author Jerry Ellis. He was the first person in modern history to walk the 900 mile route and the book was nominated for a Pulitzer and National Book Award.

Gleach does a wonderful job of presenting both worlds while maintaining an objective outlook. I have truely enjoyed reading this selection based on that alone. Gleach manages to keep you informed of the details yet helps you to gain new prospective on the view of both cultures. He not only tries to make sense of what happened in the contact period but does a good job of making you understand why it happened the way it did. Not your average Native American/ Colonial Conflict documentary. A wonderful job of teaching the Native side that you never learned in school. Blaming neither side for the outcome Gleach will make hard work of any other writer pulling off one as good.

Fred Gleach's piece is both acute and aggresive. Fered Gleach writes this book like only Fred Gleach can. This means a lot. Not everyone can live up to their potential. Fred Gleach lives up to his potential here. I tell you- this is Fred Gleach writing from Fred Gleach's heart. This means a lot. Some of us write, and it is not from the heart, or it is to get tenure. But Fred Gleach here writes this book like only Fred Gleach can. Some things, like the truth, is important. This Fred Gleach's message. This book is very Gleachian. This means a lot.

Buy it.

In this book, Gleach (Cornell University), who was a consultant on Terrence Malick's new movie "The New World," provides a wise, interesting, and readable analysis of the much-fabled Native American-English encounter in what became Virginia. AMong other things, his analysis makes sense of an incident that most everyone has heard of and many (not least the Disney studio) have sentimentalized: Pocahontas's intervention to save Captain John Smith in 1608.

What Gleach does convincingly in this book is to draw on his extensive knowledge of Algonquian(-language-speaking) peoples to interpret the scant records of Powhatan culture and cultural assumptions. To understand Powhatan reactions to the English immigrants, we need to put aside our knowledge of who won in the long run. It was far from obvious to the Powhatan that they were going to be subordinated by aliens who were barely surviving. An earlier attempt to establish a Spanish colony had failed. The Powhatan sought to incorporate the English within their society (the one to which the English had immigrated), though none of the English ever seemed to conceive that "heathen inferiors" believed that they could and should make the rules for uninvited and unruly immigrants to the Powhatan homeland.

The English view prevailed, and colonial history has been written from the viewpoint of the winners. As Marshall Sahlins has done for the native Hawaiians' understanding of Captain Cook's incursions, Gleach has recovered a plausible picture of "how natives think" (the title of Sahlins's second book about initial English-Hawaiian contacts). In addition to showing the rationality within their own understandings of the world and proper human interaction of how the Powhatan tried to educate (literally reform) those who thrust into the Powhatan world by drawing on studies of other Algonquian cultures, Gleach also draws on extensive knowledge of English culture ca. 1600 when the Church of England was relatively new and in the English view recently legitimated by the defeat of the Catholic would-be invaders.

This is perhaps the most pleasurable "academic" history I have come across. Although it provides an extensive account of life in the Chesapeake through the lives and business dealings - and there are plenty of those enumerated - of the tenacious Carroll family, I was also struck by Ronald Hoffman's major theme of family continuity, of purpose driven by recollection and ambition that the Carrolls had in spades. The very tightly researched accounts of the family history in Ireland, and of all the other families like them in the chaos of the 17th century, is little short of astonishing. I'll admit to an enduring interest in Irish history, but this one illustrates why Carrolls and others left their broken aristocracy. That continuity touches on my own forebearers, one of whom was a first cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton's. She married another Irish immigrant Marylander and set out in 1796 to populate the then frontier in Kentucky with other Catholics, I am sure at direction of one of their neighbors in Upper Marlborough, MD, Fr. John Carroll, first Catholic bishop in America and also Charles' first cousin. A great read on many levels.

Ronald Hoffman is an excellent historian who has brought great knowledge of Chesapeake social and cultural history to this biographical work that places three generations of the Carroll family within their colonial context. It is a wonderful biography that gets the reader into the minds and lives of these three Charles Carroll's. But for me the best thing was the number of times it made me think, "Oh, that's how it was." I have read enough colonial history to know that there were lots of tenant laborers and not just slaves in the region, to know that Catholic Maryland quickly became Anglican Maryland, and to know that the Revolution was not just about ideas but also about social change. Ronald Hoffman's narrative, however, really brings these facts home. His book is not about any one of these issues in particular, but in telling the story of three generations of Carroll's in Maryland he brings home the greater circumstances of the colony better than many historians who have set out to make a case for one of the above arguments, or many of the other fascinating takes on early Chesapeake society contained in this highly readable book. I have not read any book lately that I enjoyed more.

Traditional patriotism demands that we believe that the founding fathers of America were all great democratic idealist. Although this may have been true for some, many others had no problem with the idea of an elite ruling class, so long as they were considered the elite. Thus the victory over England can be viewed as less of an American Democratic Revolution and more of a power transition from the English crown to the new American aristocracy.

A primary example of this American elite class was Maryland representative Charles Carroll of Carrollton. A signer of the American Declaration of Independence, Charles of Carrollton was a wealthy planter and businessman who became such not by his own doings but primarily through the inheritance and molding of his father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis. Ever mindful of his Irish and Catholic roots and the persecution therein by English aristocrats, the elder Charles did everything in his power to equip his son to fend off those who would attempt to cripple him politically and economically. In so doing, the elder Charles created a mindset of elitism within his son.

This irony is highlighted by Ronald Hoffman in his book, "Princes of Ireland, Planters of Europe," in which he examines the Carroll family and traces how a persecuted family from Ireland in 1500 came to be one of the prominent families in America by the time of the American Revolution

I was originally attracted to this book out of a simple curiosity about the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence (Charles Carroll outlived Adams and Jefferson by about six years, or about 56 years after 1776!). On a deeper level, I hoped to learn more about the kind of early capitalist that would be attracted to signing on to the American Revolution in general. What this book helped me discover was a family that had over time become focused, almost obsessed, with making a buck under fairly adverse circumstances (namely, continuing in their Roman Catholic faith that made it difficult for them to thrive, even in an enclave as seemingly sympathetic as colonial Maryland, with its relatively large Catholic population). But when the time came for this family to rise above its simple wealth building and to champion the cause of the Revolution, it did indeed rise to the occasion, however brief and painful the process might be. (Hoffman attends to both the private and public lives of the Carrolls.) The history of the Carrolls is a part of the history of the magic that was the American Revolution. It is not surprising that the book ends abruptly with the death of Charles Carroll's father and his wife, about 10 days apart from one another in 1782 (though there is a brief summing up of Carroll's remaining 50 years and the attention attracted by his death in 1832). The story is told, the dynasty pretty much complete.

What's the book like? At times it seems downright willfully prosaic, and the story proceeds much like a carefully written doctoral dissertation - all conclusions fully supported and made in as logical a context as possible, all contentions politically correct for our time. Hoffman's goal is of course to be scholarly and thorough, not to be entertaining or controversial. Thus the sweep of this history must emerge and coalesce in the mind of the reader. Leave being beaten over the head with the broader conclusions inherent in the narrative to more popularly written histories.

Suffice it to say, if you're a municipal library and you need to beef up your Revolutionary War material, this is a prime buy. If you're a true history buff, this would be an excellent choice to work into your reading list. It has the effect of immersing you into the spirit of the times and providing you with detail you could not have imagined you would find interesting (but you do). If you're a casual reader, just be advised - this is heavy stuff. It's not an easy read, but it is ultimately a rewarding one.

Fantasic book! And not just the author's opinions but full of scripture references and explaination of the greek translations.

God has used this book to help me see how many ways I have been allowing impurity and worldly thinking. As I pursue purity in my own life, I am helping my daughter to pursue (and desire) purity in her life, as well. Thanks, Virginia for a great wake-up call!

This book covered so much more than the obvious topic of sexuality: it went much deeper to what we as women really can let into our hearts. I had never stopped and asked myself how much time I spent during a day thinking about things that were not "good." Personally, it helped me make a decision to stop watching so much TV, especially shows that focus on graphic violence, and sexual assualt against women. The book showed me how important it was for me to protect my heart, told me where to find the power to change, and has helped me find more peace in my walk with God.

I love this book. I want to study it with the women in my church. I love the order it is written in. I found with every chapter another layer of the heart is exposed right to the very center of the heart. I think the world, entertainment, fashion industry, etc., have really lulled us into compromising a lot. I know of times where I would really be bothered by things on T.V., and have even compromised my convictions thinking that maybe I'm just too old school. Thank you for waking me up!!!!

The timing of this book is perfect!!!! The morality of our world is declining so quickly, and I see how easy it is to get deceived by it. We need to be called back to God's standard and this book does that so well and makes it so desirable. GREAT BOOK!!!!

I have taken this book and studied some of it's chapters with a small group of teenage girls. It has opened up great discussions on how the world wants to pull us away from God's plan for us. I love how Virginia takes us back to the Greek translations and I have surely grabbed many deep spiritual nuggets from this book. I would highly recommednd this to every Chrisitan woman.

I have listened to JC since 1986. He and the Breakfast Club were always my favorite morning show. Everytime he would get fired from one station or another I would get ticked off and swear never to listen again....but I always returned when he would magically reappear. The books explains the firings and confirms some of the stories I had heard of the firings. I now have a strong dislike by those mentioned in the book that transgressed against JC. Go beyond the arrogance and read it, then try to listen to those two rednecks (with out a strong dislike) that were a source of a lot of JC's outbursts.

As always, J.C. tells it like it is!

J.C. Corcoran first went on St. Louis radio in 1984 at a well-known St. Louis rock station. He immediately took over the town with his prank phone calls and other radio high-jinks. Most damaging to him was his insistence on calling a spade a spade, even if the spade was radio titan Bob Hyland. Through the years, his detractors took aim at him by way of lawsuits, name-calling and complete lies. This book is J.C.'s attempt to set the record straight, and the result is riveting.

J.C. never ducks the questions raised by his controversial actions and even apologizes for his behavior when necessary. However, most of the goofiness that made J.C. a St. Louis household name can be summed up by the words a judge used to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him - "broadcast journalism at its best." He may have offended, but he also made us laugh.

The most disturbing section of the book discusses a physical assault against J.C. by the intern of J.C.'s most aggressive competitors. (These competitors had previously stooped so low as to spread vicious rumours that J.C.'s child was a mongoloid.) What a relief to learn that J.C.'s ensuing lawsuit ended with a large jury award and the offending intern being reduced to tears on the witness stand.

J.C. gives us a honest account of his headline-filled days in St. Louis that are still going strong. After reading, one feels compelled to shout at the competition the question asked by J.C. himself - "Instead of taking cheap shots, why don't you give it your best shot and I'll give it my best shot and we'll see what happens? Or is that what you're afraid of?" It's because they know they'd lose.

I could not put down this book. JC really captured what has happened in his radio career in St. Louis. From his early days at KSHE to KLOU, you feel like you are at those meetings or you followed along to surprise Mike Bush by reporting from his basement. A must read for anyone interested in St. Louis radio. Believe me, JC leaves no stone unturned. Great, fun book.

I can't wait to pick up my very own copy of this GREAT book by Virginia Kantra, so I can re-read whenever I want. THe characters are intriguing and sometimes it just AMAZES me the way an author can describe things!VK shows such a gift with words, and I don't want to give much away, but on pp. 14-15, part of her description had me LOL: "...his masculine charge lit her screens up like incoming missiles over the desert."

I just LOVED this book! What's next from this talented new author? I can hardly wait!

Virginia Kantra has created one terrific romance, and an equally terrific hero. Ms. Kantra creates characters that linger in your mind long after you finish the book. Don't miss this one!

that pulls at your heart. Virginia Kantra weaves a magic with her pen, creating characters that truly come to life. Clare Harmon is a woman who's known loss, but is strong enough to risk her heart again when she meets Matthew Dunn. Matt is a man who's seen society at its worst, but in Clare he sees only the best. Asking her to take a chance on him seems too much, but he doesn't take into account that Clare's not the type to wait to be asked - she just gives her all. This book isn't just something you should read - it's something you must read.

Clare moved into the "bad side of town" when her prosecutor husband was killed in the area while interviewing a witness. She's fighting to save the neighborhood children from gangs and crime by hiring them to work at her neighborhood vegetable gardens. Matt moves in because the police department is starting a neighborhood policing program and since he's a still-recovering wounded hero, his high visibility and limited duty make him perfect for the job.

He's not looking for romance. Neither is Clare, especially not with someone who gets shot at for a living. But Kantra makes the whole thing smooth as silk. It's believable, involving, emotional, action-packed, and just generally all-round wonderful. No wonder this book won Romance Writers of America's 1998 Golden Heart Award for Romantic Suspense before it was published.

The scarcity of interfering editorial commentary in this collection serves to focus attention onto the words of the women whose diaries tell the stories of lives greatly separated by time and distance, culture and age. Featuring women who have found fame and others who lived and died in quiet anonymity, this sampling cries out to be only the first volume in a long series on this subject.

I highly recommend Moffat and Painter's selection of diary and journal entries by a wide variety of women. They organize the excerpts according to themes related to love, work, and power. Well-known diarists one would expect to be here are, such as Virginia Woolf, Anne Frank, and Anaïs Nin. But some of the most striking are by women that are not well known, at least in America. Hannah Senesh, who did spying work for the early state of Israel; Carolina Maria de Jesus, a Brazilian who grew up in abject poverty; Martha Martin, who survived the ordeal of being stranded in Alaska and having to give birth by herself--these are a few of the extraordinary women in this book. Reading it is like sitting down with strangers who quickly end up friends--and since so many of them are writing because no one around them could listen, they pour out everything in their hearts and minds. The coeditors have a knack for selecting just the right sequence of entries, making the book more than the sum of its parts. Finally, Painter's afterward, titled "Psychic Bisexuality," caps the book with a thoughtful consideration of the significance of diary writing. Anyone who can appreciate self-expressive writing will profit by reading this book. Vintage is to be thanked for keeping it in print for so long.

For the most part, these are some great excerpts from womens' journals (though I wish there had been more than just one diary which was written before the 19th century!). However, it becomes painfully obvious by a lot of the editorial comments and the selection process they admitted to using that this came out in the Seventies. I've read other anthologies of journals like this, and they don't make it obvious which era they came out in. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this came out at the height of womens' lib, and the editors seem like they went a bit overboard. They were certainly well-meaning, but a lot of stuff that came out in this era now looks silly and like people got too carried away in that flush of an era of new possibilities and horizons. Particularly irksome is how they say that they didn't pick journallers based on if they lived in a historically interesting time, but rather admitted "Our own tastes led us to put aside those that posited a self we didn't like or find interesting, and to seek out those that demonstrated character as the ability to make moral distinctions and choices according to a personal code rather than the social or religious codes of the age in which they wrote." So then you'd rather have someone who went against the grain and whose viewpoints jive with your own rather than have someone whose beliefs you might disagree with even if she were personally religious or held to the moral code of her day and age because that was how she felt anyway, with or without the rest of society acting that way. I'd rather read journals from women who lived in interesting historical time periods, not from journals which were selected only because of political or social beliefs. It's like they were trying to find women from other eras whose opinions or personal lives agreed with what was going on in the Seventies, like sexual liberation or not getting married, and admitted that they discarded a journal which was historically interesting yet "cast too little light on the personality of the author." And Carolina Maria de Jesus did incredible things for the poor people of Brazil, but she also had all three of her children by different fathers and didn't marry any of them; is that the type of woman you want your daughter to emulate in terms of morals? I was also disgusted by the diary of Evelyn Scott, who ran away to Rio de Janiero at the age of twenty with a married man, pregnant with their illegitimate child. I'm not surprised that a number of these journals are now out of print, because they're so dated and no longer relevant! An awful lot of their comments seem like putting words in peoples' mouths; how would they know that some journaller they tossed aside wasn't status quo or religious because it was her integral nature the same way as it was another woman's integral nature to shun marriage and mainstream sexual behaviour?

It has never occured to me that I keep journals because I feel I have no other outlet of expression and like my views would be stifled otherwise, or to find "my true nature." I also don't think that any normal journallers think about why they're journalling, or if their journals are expressions of love, work, or power, as though life can be compartmentalised into such tidy and specific little categories. Most journallers just want to keep a record of their lives. "Although earlier taboos are disappearing about what is acceptable for a woman to feel, and although personal matters that were never confided even to a close friend are now casual dinner-table conversation, many women still keep diaries." There's a shocker. "As we continue to speak more openly to each other and to men, breaking the long silence about what a woman's inner life is like, dropping false personas, the need for diaries as an emotional outlet may disappear." That must be why so many people still keep journals as an emotional outlet. I think most women across the ages have kept journals just because they wanted to, not to express anger at the system or to have an outlet for illicit and taboo beliefs! "To read this book of selections from women's diaries is, for a woman reader, to experience an excitement, a warm recognition, and a dizzyingly expanded sense of possibilities...." Maybe that was true for a woman who picked the book up when it first came out, but I was born in 1979 and have always known the possibilities open to me. Times have changed a lot. So many of these excerpts (some of which would have seemed more coherent and interesting if the editors hadn't skipped around so much between the entries; why were all of the entries in between the included ones not included as well?) were so obviously included out of feminist or political motivations, and didn't make me eager to read the full-length books. This was a really laudable effort, but ultimately is like so many other books which came out in this era--laughably dated today.

If you get you're hands on this one, as I did as a 13 year old at a thrift store for 10 cents, you'll never let go. Now 20 years later, the entries by these women mean many different things to me. I didn't understand Anais Nin, I do now. I understood Anne Frank, or I thought I did. Then there were all these other wonderfully written pieces by who, I didn't know....Sand, Dostoevsky, Carr, Wordsworth, Sand. I still draw off these women and their love, work, and power as the book is broken into those three parts. I still believe in the next twenty years I'll find something new, and the twenty years after that. I believe my 10 cents went a long way, and whatever monetary value it is worth to you, this is their words for us to keep forever.

A very cool appraisal convincingly indicating that Freemasonry provided a social cement for the post-revolutionary era.

Steven Bullock has added a great deal to the study of Masonry with this book. If nothing else were accomplished he makes clear to the Freemason the true difference between ancient and modern Masonry. This book is also a fine study of the social history of the United States in its early years. Often overlooked by historians, the importance of the Freemasons in the early republic is finally looked at in depth.

Freemasonry often claims a large role in the advent of the Revolution which according to Bullock does not seem to be the case. On the other hand its importance to the American cause during the Revolution can hardly be overstated. Southern planters like Washington and Lee had little in common New Englanders such as General Greene, a Quaker from Connecticut. They had even less in common with the likes of Lafayette and von Steuben. Their one common link was Freemasonry. It seems that the officer corps of the American army forged its strong bonds around the fraternity. Not just the generals but many officers of all ranks seem to have bonded through Masonry. Military lodges spread the fraternity through out the army and soon some regiments actually marched with the officers wearing their Masonic badges of office.

Freemasonry as the title of this book suggests seems to have been important in the transformation of the American social order after the war. Masonry acted somewhat as a school for democrats but the fraternity itself began to grow into an elite order of "nobility" that almost became a new aristocracy. This status would help bring on the antimasons as the brotherhood which had helped mold early America's social order failed to change with changing times. The more open democracy brought on by the age of Jackson made a seeming aristocracy like the Masons seem out of place. In an odd twist, the father of this age was himself an active Mason. Jackson in fact served two terms as Grand Master of Tennessee.

There are only two small things about this book that I can fault. The writing style as is often the case with history professors is just a tad dull. The wealth of information to be found tends to make up for the style though. The more serious problem is the manner in which Bullock decides the Masons grew out of the stone masons guilds. There are many ideas about the origins of Masonry that deserve more attention. Bullock may well have taken the true path but he fails to document his conclusion in the way he documents his other insights.

Finally, this book which was written as a history offers important warnings for today's fraternity. As the brotherhood failed to change with the times during the antimasonry frenzy and almost died the changes in society today are also slowly killing Masonry. The fraternity must take the warnings given us in this book and learn from our past mistakes. Change is hard but sometimes necessary.

As the first third party in an American presidential election (1832) the Anti-Masonic Party has usually appeared suddenly in the story of the Jacksonian Era with little explanation except that the Masons were suspected in the murder of one William Morgan, who threatened to reveal their innermost rituals and secrets. The prosecution of the case was hampered by the fact that Masons dominated local and state government, which came to be seen an secret, elitist plot against democratic institutions. Steven C. Bullock traces the history of the Masonic movement from England to America and demonstrates how Masons were critical to the success of the American Revolution and the creation of a new nation under the Constitution of 1789. As such the Masons were not a sudden a aberration in American history but a group central to the early history of the nation. Masonic meetings gave members a place to learn how democratic government worked, how to socialize, how to argue without resorting to force, and how to participate in establishing a concept of national interest, or virtue, in the language of the times. Bullock's volume is one of the most critical interpretations of this period in American History. Do not be put off by its academic style or philosophical tone, especially in the first chapter. It really moves along afterward and demonstrates how an organization that boasted such diverse members as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism), and Andrew Jackson came to be seen as a conspiratorial institution that needed to be curbed for the betterment of an egalitarian American democracy. It also illustrates how the Masons sprang back from near destruction to be the charitable organization better recognized by Americans living today. It's well worth while!

This is a "must have" book for the person wanting to add a solid, well researched, and reliable study of the history and role of Freemasonry in these United States.

My daughter used this workbook throughout the summer to prepare for the start of 5th grade. It includes alot of review and an introduction to new concepts. I liked that it is based on the standardized tests that she will need to take this year. I also liked that there was a place for us to agree to the work she needed to complete and agree on an appropriate incentive for completeing the sections. The fact that the book was broken down also made it easy to find the proper amount of pages to do at a time. All in all I believe this was a good buy.

I really like this math workbook because it has help my 5th grader in math which is tough and harder for him. Which this book allowed him to study and do the work at home to get that extra help and understanding. Which I'm glad to say it has help 100% because he went from a low B to a high B in the 3th quarter. Really I wish I have found this book in the 1st quarter in 5th grade because I know he would have gotten Ath on his report.
Plus when you get the Scholastic Success with Math Workbook Grade 5 ( Grades 5 ) in the mail the package was in 100% excellent and great condition. Can't say anything bad or wrong about this product.

I have compared many math workbooks at the fifth grade level. This one is outstanding. It presents serious math content in interesting games/drills for all fifth grade topics, such as multiplication, division, fraction, decimal, geometry, charts, and measurement. It strikes a good balance between math concepts and fun learning. My child enjoyed it. When kids have
the interest, they become smarter. Practicing math doesn't have to be painful. When my child takes the online Beestar weekly tests, he often ranks high among his peers. I give credits to this book. Highly recommend.

I found this book to be a fun way for my students to review recently taught math concepts. It came in great condition and I was pleased with my purchase.

I am not a big fan of the paranormal romance novel. I think there are so many of them that calling them cliche is too mild a term. What is worse is that so many of them seem like it is the same story written over and over again.

But Sea Witch (Children of the Sea, Book 1) gives the subgenre a nice boost in the right direction.

Caleb Hunter is a former soldier and big city policeman. Understandably, he has returned home to an island off the coast of Maine called World's End. He's come back because he wants a simpler life.

Margred is a child of the sea. Literally. She's a selkie who is 700 years old and she comes to shore in search of sex and she chooses Caleb as her target.

The story opens as simple as that. She wants him, she lets him know, he backs off but can't quite forget her. He searches her out again and they have their tryst. After that, it is she who can't quite forget him.

And that's where the main narrative begins and Ms Kantra does a wonderful job of keeping the balance between explaining the mythical (and making it seem plausible), a believable romance, and a small town murder mystery with distinctive characters.

The story is well paced and never overdone. Events that unfold are described in such a fashion that it never feels rushed or convoluted. Secondary characters are given enough distinction that they don't feel like props to the main characters.

And the main characters are likable without being too perfect. Caleb is no rich man. He lives in a one bedroom apartment. He has issues with his father. He has a limp he acquired from his stint in the Iraq war. He has a few nightmares too. Margred is a selkie who is forced to be a human for an indeterminate amount of time. She's fairly sure she doesn't want to stay that way. She has moments of cowardice and indecision.

But these quirks of theirs never overpower or overtake Caleb and Margred's innate goodness. The quirks just make them accessible and relatable and easy to spend time with.

So easy that I read this novel in one evening. The story flow was simply that smooth and enjoyable.

And already I'm looking forward to more from Ms Kantra and the good news for me is that her next Children of the Sea novel, Sea Fever (Children of the Sea, Book 2), is coming out in August 2008. Based on the quality of Sea Witch (Children of the Sea, Book 1), I can't wait!

SEA WITCH hooked me in from the first sentence until the absolute last word. Virginia Kantra did a masterful job at world building the paranormal elements until I totally believed the Children of the Sea could be living here in my own seaside town. Caleb was mega yummy and Maggie completely enchanting - what a hot couple! I love, love, loved this book! Can't wait to get my hands on SEA FEVER. For a sure fire page turning beach read, submerge yourself in this sexy, mystical adventure!

Margred is a selkie. Able to shift shape and live either as a human or a seal, Margred is a widow and has gone without the sexual touch of a mate for many years. Finally, however, her need for touch and the warmth of another has driven her to shore and an island called World's End. Carefully hiding her pelt, a selkie's greatest possession and treasure, Margred begins her hunt for the perfect man. She finds him in the form of island Police Chief Caleb Hunter, a veteran of the Iraqi war and a local islander.

Caleb Hunter is a one-man force. As far as law enforcement goes, he is it. Fielding yet another call from an irate islander complaining of a bonfire on the beach, Caleb is astonished to see the beautiful dark eyed woman staring at him across the flames. Attraction flares in her eyes and Caleb finds himself instantly lured to her side where sparks fly.

Margred and Caleb spend hours satisfying each other but as soon as Caleb's guard is down, Margred disappears, taking Caleb's heart with her. Unable to forget her, Caleb spends the next few days searching the beach looking for the sensuous siren that fills his thoughts and haunts his dreams. The lovers are reunited once again when Caleb rescues her after an assault. Margred states she can't remember her attacker and Caleb knows she is withholding information. He has to earn her trust - he yearns for it. But, he is ill prepared for her story.

I read Virginia Kantra's novella, `Sea Crossing' in the Shifter anthology a few short weeks ago and since that time, I have been dying for the release of Sea Witch. Sea Witch has combined paranormal elements with legend and lore to equal a sensuous, sultry, and suspenseful tale. The epitome of an avenging hero, Caleb's desire to protect Margred was noteworthy and I loved watching them fall in love with each other.

Sea Witch is exactly what I wanted it to be and I have no choice but to Joyfully Recommend this endearing and provocative novel.

Talia
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Police Chief Caleb Hunter never expected to find a woman as alluring as Margred along the shoreline of World's End. Caleb is a man seeking only peace, a job that he can relax and try to forget the horrors of war. Margred shines like a beacon of hope to him, but she has a secret she knows he won't possibly believe. Margred is a selkie and everyone knows selkies are not meant for everlasting love with humans. Or are they? Meanwhile, the quiet island now harbors a darkness that threatens Margred's entire existence. Will Caleb believe Margred is a selkie in time to stop the evil that lurks on the island?

Atmosphere is key to the success of SEA WITCH. Virginia Kantra creates a very haunting, almost mystical mood that makes the selkie legends seem alive. One can easily envision both the island of World's End as well as the selkies' island Sanctuary through Ms. Kantra's vivid descriptions.

Virginia Kantra does a great job with character development. Margred is a bit distant initially, as befitting a selkie. The changes that occur in her help propel the story, as she is woman unused to caring for anyone but herself. Caleb challenges all that she knows and believes about herself and her race. Caleb is a great contrast to Margred, a man with deep emotional scars after a life of sacrifice. Whether fighting for his country or looking after his family, Caleb has willingly put aside his own needs. And yet despite their differences, Caleb and Margred share one thing in common... both are lonely and see potential happiness in the other.

SEA WITCH is an unusual story, one that draws the reader into the dark but oh so captivating world of the selkies. I've read other paranormal short stories by Virginia Kantra and am glad to see her style translates well into a full length paranormal tale. Easily recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

A poignant and touching story woven together from journals and notes. It speaks of true Christian faith, love of family and sacrifice for others. It is rich in desription and brings back many memories of living in a small town and attending a local Methodist church.

This book offers the reader hope, understanding, and how the Robertson's faith saw them through so many hardships. The Robertson's suffered pain, sorrow, and adversity, but their steadfast love and abiding faith in the Lord always prevailed throughout the turmoil in their lives. Even though it was a simpler era of time, the hardships that they endured then is still prevelent today. I would strongly suggest that anyone suffering these adversities to read this book in order to gain a stronger appreciation for what we have and to gain faith and understanding for tomorrow.

Shadow Dawn is a one-year diary/journal kept by a pioneer "steel magnolia" during the mid-thirties. Mary Adelaide Webb and her Methodist minister husband, Doctor Webb, take the reader on a journey of faith of the shadows before miracle drugs or bypass surgery as well as the joys of their "holy vow" kept throughout a forty-year Christian marriage. The reader is swept up in the optimism Mrs. Webb exhibits even under dire circumstances and the grace she imparts through her thoughts and actions. I wish I could have known Mary Webb; what an inspiration she is!

This is a truly inspirational book and extremely well written. It focuses on the life of two people after the Civil War and the struggles they endured and gives the reader hope and encouragement for a better tomorrow in the world we live. Those principles applied at that time as well as today. The book is a comfort to the hurting in today's world.