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I was super excited to partake in this blog tour and read this new Amish novel by a new to me author. It sounded like an intriguing read. However, upon receiving it and reading it, I found it to be a little slack in the gripping department. It was a bit of a slow start and took me a few tries to get into the book. But, that said, once I did get past the first several chapters, I was pleased to be able to enjoy the story line and make friends with the characters! 

The characters within this story all look forward to one thing: moving on. This story consists of two widowed souls who, after a time, are ready to seek God's will and new love. I've suffered the loss of my mother so I really felt for Leah! Though I'm older, I still often feel I need my mother here with me, so I can see why a mother was needed for Leah. And as a remarried woman, I can see the struggles that Samuel had with wanting to introduce his new frau to his family.

In the end, I did like the story. The book has some great messages of being patient and accepting what God has planned for you. It's worthy of 3.5 stars and I do recommend this book to those who enjoy Amish. Despite myself not being able to get into the story quickly, perhaps others won't have that trouble. I will also be giving book 2 in the series a try, as not every book by the authors will be the same. <a href="http://cafinatedreads.com/sg-publishing-blog-tour-review-a-mother-for-leah-by-rachel-miller/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Cafinated Reads</a>
  
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Baxter Dury recommended Loaded by The Velvet Underground in Music (curated)

 
Loaded by The Velvet Underground
Loaded by The Velvet Underground
1970 | Compilation
7.0 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was the point where I did start to accept there were other kinds of music than the stuff I’d grown up with. Because I’d listened to so much hip hop and soul, I was very dismissive, even of Bowie. I never began to negotiate with that until I was much older. A real Velvet underground obsessive is less favourable to this album because it’s less pure in their eyes than the cold, earlier stuff, but it’s the first one that got me and drew me into that kind of music. It’s soulful as well. Lou Reed is brilliant. He’s a cunt, but he’s brilliant. I met him once, I did a TV show with him, Metallica and Lana Del Rey in France. It was the most awful panel of people I’d ever had to sit with. The only person that was nice was Lars from Metallica. They lined us all up and we had to stand and look as if we were all bonding. Lou Reed was like a melted mannequin, he had about four breaths left in him, while Lana Del Rey looked like someone had kidnapped everyone she knew. Lars had been to so many AA meetings he was all ‘Oh hey! So nice to meet you!’ Weirdly enough Lou and dad had a bit of a history, because dad’s only tour of America was with Lou Reed and they really hated each other. Lou hated everybody arbitrarily, and dad just hated America. I think that tour ended because dad knew Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood and they met them in LA. He complained about Lou Reed, so Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood went and de-tuned all of Lou Reed’s guitars."

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Cate Le Bon recommended Marquee Moon by Television in Music (curated)

 
Marquee Moon by Television
Marquee Moon by Television
1977 | Rock
9.0 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The reason I love this record, apart from it being an absolutely incredible record, is that up until hearing Marquee Moon I wrote songs on my own and when it came to putting things together with a band, I would always have in my mind that I would play chords and then break for a solo and then have some more chords. A friend of mine who is a great guitarist himself asked me whether I had heard a song called 'Marquee Moon' and suggested we try learning the guitar parts together. We sat down like teenagers and tried to learn them. I suddenly realised that you can have loops of really intricate riffs – it doesn't have to be just chords and solos. So, Marquee Moon changed my attitude to arranging - in terms of the guitars - a song. But then, weirdly, after that the track 'Marquee Moon' began to haunt me out. I had some gigs in Australia and Brazil and I figured out that if the record company gave me a round-the-world ticket it would be cheaper for them and also mean I could go to places like Thailand and Chile in between the tour. And every single place I went I would hear the track 'Marquee Moon' being played on local radio stations. It started to become really, really creepy. So, when I came back from the tour I thought I better buy the bloody record as it was haunting me. I found it for a quid in a charity shop as if everything was lining up for me to listen to this record in its entirety. And I did, thankfully, and it has just really changed my attitude to playing guitar and how I could structure things differently in terms of guitar playing."

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Emeli Sande recommended track Gosh by Jamie xx in In Colour by Jamie xx in Music (curated)

 
In Colour by Jamie xx
In Colour by Jamie xx
2015 | Rhythm And Blues
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Gosh by Jamie xx

(0 Ratings)

Track

"In the past year or two I’ve really been getting into more electronic music, and finding there’s so many subgenres! I’ve found this niche of really melodic electronic music, like Jamie xx and Jon Hopkins, and I just found it so soulful – it gives you this energy at the same time. That’s really opened a world up for me, ‘cause I always assumed electronic music couldn’t be as musical! Hearing this new sound, and these new methods of being musical through newer instruments, I was like, ‘wow!’ You can really reach that point of emotion in such a different, more energetic way. ""I just love this song. It’s a masterpiece, and I love the video as well. Learning about production a lot on this last album, it’s such a skill to let each element shine through and complement one another. The main thing for me is that simple line that comes in – a synth or something – halfway through, and the way everything builds. It’s like a symphony, really. Ever piece has been so considering in the song, and has such an emotional impact. It changes one note, and you’re sucked into a deeper level of emotion of the song. It’s effortlessly epic! ""I’ve used 'Gosh' so many times to warm up before a show, to get in a very focussed sense before a performance or doing anything high-pressure. It’s definitely our tour song. It has so many emotional memories for everyone that was on tour – our cameraman had to go ‘cause his first son was about to be born, so we played that song for him when he left. It’s never got boring to me, and I think I’ve rinsed it for about two years now! It’s never lost its magic. It just gives me life every time I hear it."

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