Saturday, January 11, 2020

January $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway Ends 1/26


Have you seen all of the great new YA books that are coming out this year? I can't even keep up with them all. This gift card would definitely come in handy trying to collect some. 

What books are currently on your reading list?    

Here's your chance to either get them or get some money towards them. Just head below and enter to win! 

Giveaway is open to US &Can and ends on 1/26/2020 at 11:59pm EST. Must be 18yo+ To enter. Good luck!



Disclosure: All opinions are 100% mine. This giveaway is in no way associated with, sponsored, administered, or endorsed by Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest or any other social media network. All opinions and experiences are Conservamom‘s. Open to US & CAN , must be 18+. Confirmed Winner(s) will be contacted through email and have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be drawn. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. The sponsor will be responsible for product fulfillment to winner(s) of the giveaway. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. For questions or to see your product featured in an Event you can contact  Elia At Conservamom

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Review of Steel Strings by Alex Hayes

A Drummer in Red by Gordon Saunders


YA Historical Fiction
Published Date: 1-8-20
Publisher: INtense Publications LLC

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Lewis Elliot and his mother, Stella, are forced to flee their Baltimore home for the modest farm of their cousins in Gloucester County, Virginia. They arrive just as the feared Lord Cornwallis and the hated Colonel Banastre Carleton take up residence in Gloucester Point and across the York River in Yorktown. The war heats up as Cornwallis fortifies Yorktown and Carleton begins foraging raids in Gloucester County.

Then, while Lewis and his cousins, Lloyd and Tetty, are off to Gloucester Courthouse to try to sell enough tobacco to provide for the family, Carleton raids the farm and Stella receives a life-threatening injury.

Through battle, betrayal, unexpected alliances, and, apparently, the Hand of God, Lewis and his cousins and friends take a role in the events leading to Cornwallis’s surrender on October 19, 1781, after the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.


About the Author

Growing up in Boston, and living in four countries in Europe over 25 years, gave Dr. Saunders a desire to know and share the history that’s shaped the world we live in today.






Contact Links



Publisher Links

RABT Book Tours & PR

Cubbyhole Kid by C.E. Joseph


Teen / YA Biography, Memoirs
Date Published: November 2019
Publisher: Page Publishing

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Cubbyhole Kid is a heartrending true story of dysfunction and abuse in a California family in mid-1960s.

It tells the harrowing survival story of a young four-year-old boy as he recounts his days being raised in a strict Irish Catholic family while expressing his gratitude and love for two incredible women that saved his life—his protective fourteen-year-old sister, his godmother, and his beautiful, religious mother. Together, along with his other siblings, his brothers, they painfully navigated their abusive, alcoholic, ex-military father through the mid-1960s, Los Angeles. While dealing with a severe childhood anxiety, suicidal depression, physical and learning disabilities at such a young age, the boy traveled inside the cubbyhole, a small, two-by-four middle section of the family station wagon, unexpectedly experiencing his World War II veteran father’s life-threatening road rage.

With the fear of death always looming, the boy witnessed his father’s all too familiar, unpredictable violence, explosive temperament, and heavy drinking during our country’s escalating involvement in the Vietnam War, the hippie cultural movement, riots in the streets, and arguably the heyday of rock-and-roll music.

The story describes the boy’s fond memories and relationship with his older sister, who bravely kept him shielded from their father’s harsh punishments and became like a second mother to him. While he experienced the beauty of life outside the home during his sister’s “coming-of-age” teenage years, along with her friends who were part of the youth cultural shift that seemingly took place overnight. The nightly demonstration of violence and abuse, coupled with his father’s unwillingness to accept the generational changes taking place with society’s youth, and his mother’s unexpected illness, would seem too much and test the young boy’s faith.



Purchase Links
Amazon * B&N * iBooks * Google Play * IndieBound
(affiliate links included)



About the Author

C. E. Joseph is a first-time author who grew up in Los Angeles and is currently married and resides in Louisiana.


Contact Links





RABT Book Tours & PR

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Exploring Finding Jackson - thoughts by author Anne Holster


Welcome to the book tour for Finding Jackson, a new adult romance by Anne Holster. Today she talks to us a bit about setting up the story that actually covers a span of 40 years. Enjoy what she has to share as well as an excerpt from the book. Please leave her more questions and comments along the way as you follow the tour. Best of luck entering the giveaway!

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Exploring Finding Jackson 

‘Finding Jackson’ starts out in present-day but then time-hops back several decades where one of my main character’s (Jackson) parents meet. Most of the book takes place in northern New Jersey, but there are a lot of scenes in Brooklyn, New York and also a few in Los Angeles, California. The New Jersey scenes were a lot of fun for me being that I’m a born-and-bred Jersey girl! There are a lot of Jersey landmarks in the story which, if you’re from the area, you’ll definitely recognize.

Jumping back in time to the decade of the ‘big-hair’ days was also a lot of fun especially since I, myself, was a child of the 80’s and lived through the rock ‘n roll hair bands as well as the litany of crazy eighties gear – spandex, leg warmers, neon and of course the ‘mullet.’ It was a great era to grow up in and I think I convey that nicely in ‘Finding Jackson’.

Since I’m a self-diagnosed hopeless romantic, I’ve always been intrigued by all things that need to align before that ‘meant-to-be-couple’ can come together. In ‘Finding Jackson’ that couple seems pretty obvious – at first. Things slowly start to change, though, and as each of the characters came to life in my mind, I wanted to know what they would discover about each other and themselves and if it would be enough to create that magical, forever love. It was definitely exciting for me to explore and I hope it will be for you as well.




Finding Jackson

It's 1977 - Star Wars is breaking records at the box office, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run tour is taking the country by storm, and born-and-bred Jersey girl Annalise Keller has fallen in love for the first and last time. Hot and charismatic with dreams of making it as a rock star, Keith "Ace" Foxx is everything a teenage girl dreams of. He falls as hard for Anna as she does for him and the two decide to run off to California in search of his big break. Fate has other plans though, and several years and three kids later, Ace has traded in his guitar for a job at the local post office and Anna has become a symbol of all he has given up. Ace spends most nights at the local bar, trying to drink away his anger and resentment.

Flash forward a decade, and their youngest child, Jackson, is headed nowhere fast. In a life filled with meaningless jobs and too much partying, music is his only true escape from the pain of a childhood that abruptly ended one rainy night. The accident had destroyed his family and left him with a slew of unanswered questions.

Everything changes the night Jackson meets Leah. Shy and reserved, she doesn't smoke and barely drinks; she certainly doesn't put out. Not exactly the girl from the Bon Jovi videos he watched as a kid. Yet, before he knows it, she has become his world.

Then, just when it looks like his dreams might come true, betrayal and loss once again threaten everything he holds dear. As Jackson struggles to keep his world from spinning out of control, he knows one thing for sure, the choices he makes now will either be the start of a whole new life, or it just might be the end of him.


Read an excerpt:
You hear people talk about this feeling, that once-in-a-lifetime, struck-by-a-thunderbolt feeling; you know, like when two cartoon characters are staring at each other and their eyes look like two big hearts bugging out of their heads. You hear about it but never really believe it could happen in real life. That is until it happens to you and then it completely consumes you, leaving you exhausted and worn out from falling for someone so hard so fast. It’s a high that you never, ever want to come down from. I think they call it love at first sight and, well, that’s exactly how I felt when I saw him. I can’t even explain why I was so taken with him – he definitely wasn’t what you’d call “classically handsome” - I just knew I couldn’t take my eyes off him.


(affiliate link) 


About Anne Holster


Anne Holster resides in Northern New Jersey with her husband and two children. When she's not writing she enjoys spending time with her family, playing tennis and reading angsty romance novels. She is currently working on her fourth book.

https://www.facebook.com/Anne-Holster-885353721587102





One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Follow the tour for more chances to win!

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