adventure Archives - Donna Galanti - Where heart and hope meet adventure!

Review of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow + Hard Cover Giveaway!

Check out my review today of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow by Jessica Haight and Stephanie Robinson, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom. I pre-ordered this middle grade mystery months ago and it finally arrived on my doorstep just in time for Christmas – as you can see! 🙂

**Congrats to Janice who won the book!**

About The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow
Written by Jessica Haight
& Stephanie Robinson
Illustrated by Roman Muradov

The Begonia House keeps its secrets. Everyone knows that. Everyone, that is, except for clever eleven-year-old Fairday Morrow, whose family has just moved in. Being the Senior Investigator in the Detective Mystery Squad, more commonly known as the DMS, she’s ready to uncover the mysteries hidden within the strange manor. As the investigation gears up and the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, the three young sleuths enter into a world where anything is possible, and the danger is most definitely real. Can they piece together the puzzle before it’s too late? Or will whatever’s causing trouble find Fairday and her friends first?

MY REVIEW:

What a fun mystery adventure with a dash of supernatural for kids and grown-ups alike to enjoy! Spunky Fairday Morrow is a good friend full of pluck and curiosity, who stands up for what she believes in and has no time for bullies. Each chapter’s cliffhanger ending raises questions that draws you deeper into the mystery connecting Fairday to Begonia House, the rambling, spooky home her parents plan to turn xenical into a bed and breakfast.

Fairday soon enlists friends in the kids-only Detective Mystery Squad (DMS) to find out who is haunting Fairday’s new home with evil intent. Enchanted mirrors, ghostly music, gypsy curses, an unsolved disappearance, and a nod to The Wizard of Oz all eerily come into play behind strange happenings that ramp up the suspense.

Fairday and her friends each have their own admirable qualities that should appeal to readers and I’d like to get to know them better as they grow as characters. The parents are nicely served up on the outskirts of the story and the authors do a good job of the young characters taking charge of their own situation and solving it, even when they find themselves having to figure a way out of some dark situations. I especially enjoyed the elderly curmudgeon character, Larry Lovell, who sheds light on the trickery occurring in Fairday’s home and provides important information the DMS uses to solve the puzzle trapped inside the magical walls of Begonia House.

This book is a page turner that you’ll want to keep reading to unravel the mystery! The ending is wrapped up neatly but aptly leaves the door open for more tales about the DMS. I eagerly await more adventures of Fairday, her friends, and their investigative adventures!

Check out the book trailer:

Follow Stephanie and Jessica!

Fairday’s Blog

Fairdayfiles.com

@DMSfiles

Would you like to win a hardcopy of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow? Comment on this post and be entered to win! U.S. residents only please.

Cover Reveal: Joshua and the Lightning Road + Giveaway! #M9BFridayReveals

By Donna Galanti

I’m super excited I can finally share the cover of my debut children’s book, Joshua and the Lightning Road!

Cover Reveal: Joshua and the Lightning Road by Donna Galanti with Giveaway #M9BFridayReveals

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

Joshua and the Lightning Road by Donna Galanti

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Stay away from the window, don’t go outside when it’s storming and whatever you do, do not touch the orb.

Twelve-year-old Joshua Cooper’s grandpa has always warned him about the dangers of lightning. But Joshua never put much stock in his grandpa’s rumblings as anything more than the ravings of an old man with a vast imagination. Then one night, when Joshua and his best friend are home alone during a frightful storm, Joshua learns his grandpa was right. A bolt of lightning strikes his house and whisks away his best friend—possibly forever.

To get him back, Joshua must travel the Lightning Road to a dark place that steals children for energy. But getting back home and saving his friend won’t be easy, as Joshua must face the terrifying Child Collector and fend off ferocious and unnatural buy modafinil beasts intent on destroying him.

In this world, Joshua possesses powers he never knew he had, and soon, Joshua’s mission becomes more than a search for his friend. He means to send all the stolen children home—and doing so becomes the battle of his life.

Title: Joshua and the Lightning Road
Publication date: May 19, 2015
Publisher: Tantrum Books/Month9Books
Author: Donna Galanti

Donna Galanti writes murder and mystery with a dash of steam as well as middle grade adventure fiction. She is the author of books 1 and 2 in the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy, A Human Element and A Hidden Element, the short story collection The Dark Inside, and Joshua and The Lightning Road (Books 1 and 2, 2015). She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse. It has lots of writing nooks, fireplaces, and stink bugs, but she’s still wishing for a castle again—preferably with ghosts.

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

(Winners will receive their book on release day)

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Remembering Grandpa’s

By Donna Galanti

Pop Pop.

My grandpa. I didn’t see him often. He lived with my grandma in a rural part of Kentucky when I was growing up in New York. A small place that backed up to woods. His name was Henry Ezekiel Beckley but they called him Zeke.

Me and my Pop Pop & Grandma

He had this rough, twangy accent that rolled over you like crackling peanut brittle. We’d play horseshoes out back and drink sweet tea. Sometimes we’d lumber down to the pond on an old pony to go turtle fishing. He even had a collection of shiny turtle shells.

I never ventured outside there on a summer night. I lay in my bed listening to a ghostly hound baying under the moon. Pop Pop told me it was the devil dog that roamed the woods at night. “Stay inside and he won’t get you”, Pop Pop said. I believed him.

He would take me with him to the Dead Horse Holler Tavern some times. An old place with peeling white paint. It looked like bird doo doo had been slapped on it over time. I’d get a Coke in a glass bottle and press it to my face, enjoying its coldness in the muggy Kentucky summer.

The Dead Horse Holler Tavern

Pop Pop. Grandpa. Grandfather. Grandad.
My mom called hers Pappy.
My son calls one Pop Pop and the other Grampy.

In my book, Joshua and the Lightning Road, Joshua calls his grandpa Bo Chez – for the big cheese. He’s a big barrel of a man with a booming voice and magic in his hands. He’s also a big force in Joshua’s life and his unexpected journey.

Do you have a Pop Pop and fond memories? What was he like?