Friday, March 5, 2021

Dear Abby - Videos Abby Likes: Fainting Goats!


Dear Friends,

Happy Friday to you! It is March here and it already feels like Spring (most days, at least). Is it Spring-like in your corner of the world?

I have enjoyed learning about fainting goats this week. My friend Shari sent me a video from National Geographic that tells all about them (in a very short time). They are cute little goats that fall down when they are excited. They don't actually faint, but their legs lock up. Here is the little video with the story of fainting goats:

Here is another video I found on Youtube. It is about a fainting goat who gets excited and faints when he is on a swing! He is not hurt, though. 

I have never met a fainting goat but I think I want to now. I wonder if they like little dogs? Have you ever met one of these goats? My Momma has not, although she likes goats in general very much. We have goats in this area who "rent out" to graze on yards that have lots of greenery. Momma ALWAYS stops the car to take pictures. Here is a photo she took of a grazing goat that climbed a tree!  (He is facing the other direction but if you click on the photo you can see him in the tree.)



Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great day!

Love,

Abby xoxoxo


Book Review and Giveaway - The Earl's Lady Geologist by Alissa Baxter


My Review

The Earl's Lady Geologist is a unique Regency romance set in 1817 England. It tells the story of Cassandra Linfield, who has a love of fossils and who wants to pursue this dream as a lifelong passion -- in a time when careers were not open to women.  She meets Edward, Lord Rothbury, who is a gentleman geologist. Although they have a common passion for geology, sparks fly constantly during their interactions. As Cassy spends time with the Rothbury family, she gets to know Edward better while they navigate a possible future together.

I wanted to read this novel because I love the Regency period. I found the idea of a woman pursuing geology during that time intriguing.

This book was such a delightful surprise!  Alissa Baxter has a fine knack for Regency detail, including delightful references to some Jane Austen novels and characters. 

Cassy's passion for fossils, which she learned from her parents who worked in the geology field together, was vividly drawn. I love when I learn things from a book and I enjoyed the little details about fossils and geology that were interspersed throughout this novel.

Cassy and Edward are one of my favorite pairings from recent reads. They truly seemed, on many levels, to have a marriage of true minds, although they both had some stubbornness and awkwardness that built stumbling blocks for a romance.

There was a mystery involved in the story that put the characters in jeopardy and added some additional excitement to the narrative.

The author even included details about women who pursued geology during the 1800's, both as characters in the novel and in the historical afterward. The historical notes after the novel were fascinating and I recommend that readers look for them.

I really enjoyed The Earl's Lady Geologist and look forward to reading future books in this series. I recommend this book for fans of Regency fiction, Janeites, and anyone who is interested in fossils or geology in general.

Book Synopsis

Cassandra Linfield is a lady fossil collector who declares she will never marry as no man will ever take her studies seriously. When circumstances force her to travel to Town for the Season, Cassy infiltrates the hallowed portals of the Geological Society from which she has been banned. She is horrified when she comes face to face with her nemesis, the infuriating Earl of Rothbury.

Lord Rothbury is a gentleman-geologist with a turbulent romantic past. After a youthful disappointment he vows never to fall in love again, and makes the decision, instead, to seek out a convenient wife when he returns to England from his geological travels abroad.

Brought together by their close family ties, Cassy and Rothbury collaborate on a geological paper and discover a powerful attraction. Marriage, however, is the one subject they cannot agree upon. But when Cassy’s life is threatened, the two realise that love matters more than their objections.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound | Kobo


Author Bio

Alissa Baxter was born in a small town in South Africa, and grew up with her nose in a book on a poultry and cattle farm. At the age of eleven she discovered her mother’s collection of Georgette Heyer novels. The first Heyer novel she ever read was Sylvester and she was hooked on Georgette Heyer after that. She read and reread her novels, and fell totally in love with the Regency period and Heyer’s grey-eyed heroes! After school and university, where she majored in Political Science and French, she published her first Regency novel, The Dashing Debutante.

Alissa travelled overseas and worked as a flight attendant in Dubai before she moved to England, where she did an odd assortment of jobs while researching her second novel, Lord Fenmore’s Wager, which she wrote when she moved back to South Africa. Alissa’s third Regency novel, A Marchioness Below Stairs, is the sequel to Lord Fenmore’s Wager.

Alissa has lived in Durban and Cape Town but she eventually settled in Johannesburg where she lives with her husband and two sons. Alissa is also the author of two chick-lit novels, Send and Receive and The Blog Affair, which have been re-released as The Truth About Series: The Truth about Clicking Send and Receive and The Truth About Cats and Bees.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Giveaway

Enter to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on March 26. You must be 18 or older to enter.

The Earl's Lady Geologist



Book Spotlight and Giveaway - Deadly Darkness: A World War II Mystery (Deadly Series) by Kate Parker


Book Synopsis
As Britain prepares for an imminent invasion, the murder of a celebrated Arctic explorer leads to the discovery of a web of Nazi spies on the south coast.

July, 1939. Newlywed Olivia Denis Redmond plans to spend a peaceful honeymoon in the country before war rips her soldier husband away. But when she finds a dead body in the midst of a blackout, Olivia is drawn into the investigation.

Since the police inspector isn’t interested in clues pointing to espionage and blackmail, Olivia must unlock secrets hidden for years in this idyllic village and face the wrath of an unseen enemy.

As danger stalks her, can Olivia expose a cunning killer before she becomes the next victim?

Deadly Darkness, the sixth book in the Deadly Series, is for fans of World War II era spy thrillers and classic cozy mysteries, of intrepid lady sleuths with spunk and smarts. No explicit cursing, sex, or violence.

Start exploring this journey or mystery and intrigue today as Britain and Germany draw dangerously close to war.


Author Bio

Kate Parker caught the reading bug early, and the writing bug soon followed. She’s always lived in a house surrounded by books and dust bunnies. After spending a dozen years in North Carolina, she moved to Colorado. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but she’d developed a love of wide rivers, warmer and wetter weather, and fast-growing greenery that sent her hurrying back to North Carolina.

Deadly Travel is the fifth book in the Deadly Series, and Kate’s plan is to follow it quickly with Deadly Darkness, both set in 1939 in the days leading up to war. There are at least three more of the Deadly Series coming that will bring the beginning of the war to Olivia’s doorstep. Kate reports that she is having fun creating new stories to entertain readers and chaos to challenge her characters.

Author Links

Website – www.KateParkerbooks.com
Facebook – www.Facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker/
Twitter – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-parker
GoodReads – www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123001.Kate_Parker

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo

Giveaway

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