Review: Rocky Road by Becky Wade
4 days ago
It's the summer of 1968 in Sonoma County, California, and eleven-year-old Weston Gregg and his nine-year-old sister, Wendy, are looking for fun things to do during their summer break from school. When they discover some abandoned rabbits, they hatch an idea to make a positive difference for animals and people in their small town of Tyler Stop.
They decide to form 'Rescue Each Species-Quickly', or RES-Q Tyler Stop.
There are challenges to face as they move forward into their new venture, including standing up to someone who is targeting Weston's friends for being different and a painfully bad decision.
Will Weston have to handle these issues on his own or will he learn to accept the advice and wisdom shared by some important people in his life? Join Weston and his family and friends as they share some adventures and learn and grow together in RES-Q Tyler Stop.
Thank you for hosting me on your blog for this blog tour, Kate. I'm thrilled to share my favorite aspect of writing this story with your readers.
My favorite aspect of writing RES-Q Tyler Stop is that I have fulfilled a dream. I've wanted to write a middle-grade novel for the past few years. My other three published works are all in the inspirational romance genre for adults. While I still enjoy writing for adults, I really wanted to work on a historical adventure novel for children.
I was blessed to be a teacher for twenty years plus one year of student teaching. The majority of my career I taught first grade, but I also had the opportunity to teach Kindergarten, second, third, and fourth grades. I was a literacy mentor at my school site for three years which meant I went through additional training in how to teach reading, phonics, spelling, and writing to students. It also meant I trained other teachers and parents using those effective teaching techniques so they could better assist their students and children.
A few years ago when it occurred to me I was being led to write a children's book. I began reading middle-grade novels like crazy, especially historical novels. I reread a lot of books I had enjoyed as a young reader such as the Laura Ingalls Wilder 'Little House' series, 'The Boxcar Children' series, Beverly Cleary's Ramona and Beezus books, 'My Side of the Mountain', the Trixie Belden mysteries, and many more. I discovered some new-to-me authors of historical middle-grade fiction whose work I greatly admire such as Lauren Wolk, Kate DiCamillo, and Kirby Larson. These books inspired me and increased my ambition to write in this genre.
After a few false starts with this manuscript such as making it a contemporary family story then changing it to an inspirational romance, I hit upon the 'write' {please pardon the pun} formula. The story came together quickly when I set the book in the summer of 1968 in Sonoma County in Northern California and wrote to an audience of middle-grade readers.
It was important to me to include many cultural aspects of California history in the book along with some pop culture references of the late 1960s. I enjoyed writing about children who did not have electronics and technology to entertain them. Instead I focused on the ways in which the main characters made their own fun and worked together to overcome challenges. The brother and sister in this book see a need in their community and they work diligently to fill it. Weston and Wendy feel the internal reward humans feel when they have performed a good deed without expecting anything in return for their kindness.
It is my genuine hope that this story will inspire young readers to reach outside of their own comfort zones to do something to help their community, someone in need, animals, or our earth.
After four years with her boyfriend, Cadie McCaffrey is thinking of ending things. Convinced Will doesn't love her in the "forever" way she loves him, Cadie believes it's time for her to let him go before life passes her by. When a misunderstanding leads to a mistake, leaving her hurt, disappointed, and full of regret, she finally sends him packing.
But for Will, the end of their relationship is only the beginning of his quest to figure out how to be the man Cadie wanted him to be. With the dubious guidance of his former pro-athlete work friends and tactics drawn from Cadie's favorite romantic comedies, Will attempts to win her back. It's a foolproof plan. What could possibly go wrong?
Bethany Turner is back with more of the heart and humor readers love. Anyone who enjoys a good romance or binges romantic comedies on Netflix will devour this delightful story.
They’re as Different as Could Be. But They’ll Need to Trust Each Other to Survive the Wilderness . . . and the Dangers Chasing Them.
City dweller John McCall never expected to be out in the High Sierras of 1868 on a wild-goose chase to find the Chiltons’ supposedly lost grandson. But now that he’s out here, things have gotten even more complicated, mostly due to wildcat Penny Scott. She’s not like any woman he’s ever met–comfortable in the woods, with a horse, and with a gun.
When Penny and John are taken against their will by a shadowy figure looking for evidence they don’t have, both realize they’ve stumbled into something dangerous. With their friends and family desperately searching for them, Penny and John must make a daring escape.
When they emerge back into the real world, they discover their kidnapper just won’t stop. This city man and country woman must bring a powerful, ruthless man to justice, all while fighting a very inconvenient attraction to each other.
In 1918 England, Lieutenant Colin Mabry spends his days decoding messages for MI8 after suffering injuries at the front. When he receives an urgent summons by carrier pigeon from Jewel Reyer--a woman who saved his life and whom he believed to be dead--he can only hope he'll regain the courage he lost on the front lines as he's driven back into war-torn France.My Thoughts:
But Jewel isn't the one waiting for him in Paris. Instead, it is a stranger who claims to be her half sister, Johanna, who works at a dovecote for French Army Intelligence. She found Jewel's diary and believes her sister is alive and in the custody of a German agent. With spies everywhere, Colin is at first skeptical of Johanna, but as they travel across France and Spain, a tentative trust grows.
That trust is quickly put to the test, however, when their pursuit leads them straight into the midst of a treacherous plot and their search for answers quickly turns into a battle for their lives.
Deceiving an empire is a treacherous game.
Tanwen and the Corsyth weavers race to collect the strands of an ancient cure that might save Gryfelle. But Tanwen has a secret—Gryfelle isn’t the only one afflicted by the weaver's curse.
As Queen Braith struggles to assert her rule, a new arrival throws her tenuous claim to the Tirian throne into question. Braith’s heart is turned upside down, and she’s not sure she can trust anyone—least of all herself.
The puppet master behind Gareth’s rise to power has designs on Tanwen and the story weavers and will stop at nothing to reclaim the throne. A plot to incite the angry peasants of Tir takes shape, and those dearest to Tanwen will be caught in the crossfire. As the fight for Tir consumes the realm, no one can remain innocent.
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