Review and Shout Out for Colleen Chesebro’s Heartstone Chronicles: The Swamp Fairy

I was transported back to a joy I haven’t experienced since my earliest enthralling reading days, a fairy-tail so believable I couldn’t forget it.  Colleen’s characterizations of Abby and her animal friends made me feel just as I did as a child, in love with animals and the unseen world.  I can’t recommend this book highly enough.  I felt as though I experienced things I miss from my life now.  I took the liberty of including other reviews.  I am not the only one loving this book.

“Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers,” Steven Spielberg

The Heart Stone Chronicles: The Swamp Fairy

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Here’s where you can find your copy:

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Paperback

Goodreads

Would you love to own your own calcite fairy stone pendant like Abby Forester wears in the book? Here’s how to get yours:

The small calcite heart stone pendant is at the left near the hummingbird on the cover. Here is the link to Irene’s Etsy site where you can buy your own pendant: https://www.etsy.com/listing/480852170/black-silk-necklace-with-silver-wrapped

The large calcite heart stone pendant is pictured at the right just above my name. Here is the link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/480852682/black-silk-necklace-with-silver-wrapped

You can read more about Irene, who designed the necklaces here. Please stop by and check out her blog, IreneDesign2011, and let her know what you think. Aren’t the necklaces gorgeous?

Here’s what readers are saying about The Heart Stone Chronicles: The Swamp Fairy

“An enchanting book, written by Colorado author and blogger Colleen Chesebro, the “Fairy Whisperer.” This charming book tells a story about a little girl, Abigail, who, in spite of a difficult life, finds true magic from the love she has given, the love she receives, the magic of friendship, and of her beloved swamp.
A wonderful book for tween girls who, like all of us at that age, love horses, magic, and trying on their own wings. Beautifully written, and lovingly told, this story resonates those values we all hope to achieve.” – Belinda M.

“This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I must admit that it’s not my usual kind of read. But I thought I’d give it a chance. Right off the bat, I had two favorite characters, Abby and Sam. The author drew me in with good writing, excellent pacing, and an antagonist that had me turning pages at an alarming rate. I had to find out what the dastardly villain would do next!

Our hero, Abby, has a lot to contend with. Her mother died some time ago, and her father has now disappeared. She is shipped off to a new town where she’ll have to start a whole new life. All this in the first few pages. But then her problems really begin.
My only regret is that I don’t have a young daughter to share this with. This is the perfect book for young girls, but so expertly written that even an old reprobate like myself can enjoy it.

One last thing, it wasn’t until I was well into the book that I started to pay attention to the haikus at the beginning of each chapter. I was too focused on the story. But once I did take the time to read them and realized their significance to the chapter that followed, I went back and read them all. What beautiful poetry indeed.” – Andrew Joyce

“I have never been into fairies, but this poignant tale of winged creatures and the humans selected to protect them was compelling.

Abigale Forester aka Abby the Fairy Whisperer, Moves from Chicago to Blackberry Ridge, FL to live with her Aunt Magnolia after the death of her beloved mom. Abby’s dad abandoned her for his drug addiction unable to deal with his grief. His sister Magnolia takes in her niece and drama ensues.

Poor Abby has little time to mourn her mother, when she has to pick up her life and move to the unknown. Luckily her aunt is a loving, caring guardian.

Abby soon finds that she has a special gift of talking to all of the animals and the fairies of the land. The Calcite pendent given to her by her deceased mother holds special powers, as well. She learns that it is her birthright to save the fairies from the evil Rafe Cobb, threatening to destroy their realm.

Rafe Cobb is a businessman whose greed for Abby’s inherited swampland, causes him to order her to be killed. The tables are turned and like Abby says the forest take care of its own. She refused to sell her land because she knew “The wrath of the gods would bring about the complete destruction of humankind. All because of one man’s greed for money.”

The book was vividly told in a way that has the reader transported to the swamp. It was as if I could close my eyes and reach out to touch the beautiful green fairy with red about her neck and translucent wings. I could smell her scent of lavender, sandalwood and patchouli. The author took me on a magical journey through the swamp so familiar I could have sworn I had visited the land.

With my recent loss of my mom, the book pulled at my heart strings when Abby’s mother appears to her and says “I am always here with you in your heart, Abby. Even if I do not walk this earth with you, your footprints are my footprints, and they have become our footprints.”

Kudos to Colleen Chesebro for her first time out of the gate. You would think she has written 20 plus novels.” –  Lisa T

“I don’t usually read fantasy or supernatural books, but this ephemeral story captured me from the start. Abby is so down to earth. There is nothing diaphanous about her. She moves between reality and the supernatural with absolutely no awkwardness. I almost felt I could follow her. The relationship with Sam is so true. Can’t wait for Volume 2. Wonderfully done, Colleen.” –  Linda Bethea

“First of all, thank you to Colleen Chesebro for my ARC copy of The Heart Stone Chronicles – The Swamp Fairy in exchange for an honest review.

What’s not to love? I knew I would love The Swamp Fairy and I did. For me, it has two magical ingredients: a crystal pendant, ( I just love crystals!!!) and fairies! My only regret is that when I turned the last page of The Swamp Fairy I was left feeling bereft. I wanted more!!! Thank goodness Colleen will satisfy this sense of loss with the second book in this series…I’d recommend The Swamp Fairy to young ‘tween’ girls who love the magical realm of fairies, and the power and mystery of crystals exemplified in Abigale’s pendant, a precious piece of the sacred calcite heart stone.

Gutsy young heroine  Abigale Forester will do anything to save the swamp fairies and the Pink Sundew plants. Right from the start, it’s obvious that she’s no pushover, even though she has had to deal with more pain and loss than the average fourteen-year-old.  After her mother, Kathryn’s death, and her drug addict father’s disappearance, she is sent away to stay with her distant aunt Magnolia. It’s not just the weather that changes.

Chicago girl Abigale’s new destination is Blackberry Ridge, Florida. She has to get to know her aunt, acquaint herself with a new school,  meet new friends, Savanna Brooks,  Blake Barrett, and Cash Brooks, (Savanna’s brother.)  But all that’s nothing compared with having to cope with the nasty jibes of the mean Kramer brothers, and it doesn’t end there.

A greedy, ruthless land developer, Rafe Cobb is determined to get hold of the swamp land bequeathed to her by her deceased mother. Abigale refuses to buckle under Rafe Cobb’s threats even when she realises that he will go to the most desperate and deadly ends to get what he wants.Abigale has a special relationship with the fairies, (the Naiad Nymph Clan) a unique bond with horses, (especially Sand Dollar) and the many other animals in the story. She can hear what they are saying, and can speak to them too!

This is such an enthralling, sweet story, with excitement a-plenty. There are beautiful descriptions of the swamp fairies, dragonflies, and hummingbirds. Plus the added bonus of beautifully crafted haiku poems at the start of each chapter.

Highly recommended.” –   Marjorie Mallon

 

You can find me here:

You can email me at colleenchesebro3@gmail.com.

Amazon US Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/colleenchesebro

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CMChesebro/

Twitter at https://twitter.com/ColleenChesebro

Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/collie333/

Google+ at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ColleenChesebro/posts

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/colleen.chesebro.3

A Mindful Journey (my mindful journey blog) at https://amindfuljourneysite.wordpress.com/

I love hearing from you. Thanks for stopping by,

~Colleen~

 

 

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Author Zone Launching – Bring Your Books

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a cooking pot and twisted tales

A writers’ journey can be a lonely and arduous trip and the success of a writer is the collective effort of all those who surround him/her.

I know that I am a small time blogger out there but I believe so much in the strength that lies in unity.

It’s been in my heart for quite a while to find ways of contributing, encouraging and promoting my fellow authors around.

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Pizza Love

I suspect there is a new pyramid scheme starting, a plot to fatten.  It’s diabolical.  Someone gave a friend a box containing seventy-five pizzas from one of those gigantic superstores, no doubt regretting their foolish purchase. That is neither a typo nor exaggeration.  There were actually seventy- five pizzas left.  She wagged it home, split it into three separate bundles and put them in the freezer.  Her twenty-year-old son still lives at home.  He was on that pizza like a dog on a bone, joyously heaping those basic pizzas with every added topping he could ferret out, extra cheese, mushroom, sausage, hotdogs, hamburger, and extra sauce.  The original pizzas looked like layer cakes by the time he was ready to eat.  He had pizza for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and frequent snacks.  Tired of watching him grow pizza by pizza, his cruel mom sacked up the fifty remaining pizzas and divided between her mom and her sister.

She needn’t have wasted the time sending pizza to Grandma’s house.  Her boy sniffed it out and beat a steady path to Grandma’s, working on the stack adding Grandma’s cheese, sauce, and various toppings, including Vienna Sausage.  The only thing the move accomplished was to get him a bit of exercise and quality time with Grandma’s freezer,  Grandma tired of seeing his expanding backside sticking out of her freezer, so she sent the remaining pizza home with her sister who had a pizza-loving daughter and husband.  They jumped on the pizza, diving in at all hours.  Both were worried about their weight long before that pizza found its way to their freezer.  It wasn’t good.

The other bundle of pizza went home with her delighted brother-in-law who thoroughly enjoyed the pain on the young man’s face as the pizza left.  After a couple of days, the sister called.  She’d come in and found her hubby and pudgy daughter in a pizza-induced carbohydrate-stupor.  Hubby had sneaked the pizza in and hidden it from her.  She’d had both of them on a low-carb diet for weeks and now they’d nearly overdosed on bad pizza.  She was livid.

I wonder if they’ll all get a call in a few days offering a time-share fat-farm and two for one stretch pants for nineteen ninety-nine, shipping and handling extra.

“Help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up!”

Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.

Please don’t read if you are easily offended.  This is nursing humor.

My husband I are both retired RNs so we frequently spot errors in commercials.  The other evening, one of those frequent “Help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up!” commercials came on.

Bud watched the poor woman intently for a moment and said, “I know damn good and well she didn’t fall.  She didn’t piss her pants.”

He knows whereof he speaks, having worked on a physical rehab floor for more than twenty years.

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On Melvin

On Melvin’s good days, he was eccentric.  Other days, he tipped toward fanaticism.   While he was in the army in Korea, he wrote home asking Mama how she’d like a Korean daughter-in-law.  Mama wouldn’t like that at all.  Answering her it was just a joke; that was the end of it.  After mustering out, he came home and married Maggie, a young widow with a son.  Almost immediately, they had a son, then a year later, a second who was born with birth defects.  Melvin became was inconsolable and melancholic, sure his child was being punished for his sin of abandoning the woman and child in Korea he’d not having the courage to marry and bring home to his disapproving family.

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Maggie married Melvin shortly after her first husband died.  Maybe she should’ve waited longer, but she was exhausted after her long struggle to support Ray through his illness and then Little Ray after he died, so she was glad to have Melvin’s companionship and support, even though he was odd from the start.  Things went well enough for several years, but by the time Melvin reached his late forties, he’d developed religious delusions that made him impossible to live with.

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Y’all Got a Snake in Y’all’s Tree!

It’s not everyday one hears a dynamic statement like this! Melvin was the ex-husband of Mother’s old friend, Maggie. A good man, he’d gone just a bit “off the rails” and Maggie, had reluctantly left him as a result of his increasingly fantical religious leanings. Mother and Daddy had long been faithful congregants of their church, only missing services if unable

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I got one of those miraculous little robot vacuum sweepers that scurries around getting dust bunnies, dog hair, and cleaning spots I routinely neglect.  I love it.  All you have to is empty the little dust bin and unwind the dog hair off the rotary brush after each use.  It can even be set to run during the night.  The little genius even docks itself to recharge.  It has a little laser light device to fence it into a room.  I run it in the front rooms during the night and do the hall and bedrooms during the day.  One day I fooled around and left it barred in my bedroom under the bed so it couldn’t redock.  It kicked off at midnight and scared the crap out of me.  That was exciting!

Mother is hostile to technology.  She does her floors with a straw broom and stringmop the God way intended. She is even suspicious of a sponge mop.  The robot vacuum is totally baffling to her.  She can’t fathom how it knows how clean to the entire area. I couldn’t make her understand repetitive random movements.  It was no help at all when Bud told her it made a computerized map, then dropped it in my lap to explain his lie.  I will have to knock his little bitty brains out.

 

 

That’s Their Problem

Mother has three closets jammed with clothes.  Last time I counted, she had thirty-two outfits with tags.  Last Sunday when she stopped by to score a meal, she was sporting this stylish ensemble.  Since it was a tad nippy, she’d donned the purple, long-sleeved shirt I’d given her when she got caught without a sweater at my house several years ago.  As you can see, it’s extremely roomy. Paired with these charming cropped pants she’s been wearing for at least ten years, she was really styling.  For a finishing touch, she slipped into ankle-high nylons and loafers, accessorized by her pedometer, since her current obsession is walking.

I couldn’t help remarking, “Mother, you do know that’s a hideous outfit, don’t you?”

“I don’t care!  I’m old enough to wear what I want to,” was her reply.

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