A wonderful work of whimsey. Looking into the hearts of children, this is a work of wonder and love.

Freddy the Flea is one of the most engaging and well-written stories I've read in a very long time. Read-aloud audiences always cry for more! This is a keeper -- sure to become a treasured keepsake for the youngsters in the family.

Kids love this book and my niece even wrote me a thank you note when I mailed her a copy.

The plot is interesting - even though the spy bit was a little less played out than I would have liked. Other than that, I loved the characters, the way they converse with eachother, and the way they discovered eachother's identity.. I can definitely see this developed later on as a longer novel because it has so much potential. But in its current form, it's still a wonderful story.

To settle a debt between their fathers, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Jane Aurora Taft is married to twenty-year-old James Hadley Alexander Fenimore, the third and youngest son of the Earl of Woodbridge. After the ceremony, the groom, who recently bought a commission in the Horse Guards, leaves for India to join his regiment. Their fathers arrange that Aurora will return home until she turns sixteen; thereafter she will reside at Rexford House, the smallest, most run-down, and isolated of the Woodbridge lands, which Alex inherited from his grandfather.

Ten years later, Elizabeth Jane Aurora Fenimore has discarded her married name for her mother's family name, Sprague, and lives quietly at Rose Cottage with her former governess. Aurora, founder of the Sprague Agency for Distressed Females, has earned a reputation for solving women's problems with efficiency and dispatch. Local ladies with philandering husbands -- husbands who are, as a result of Aurora's investigations, willing to spend money on their wives instead of their mistresses -- and women Mrs. Sprague has spirited away from their abusive husbands view her as an angel sent from heaven to aid them. The men, no doubt, think her a devil sent from Hell to plague them, but Aurora is not concerned with the opinions of men. Having herself suffered a gross injustice at the hands of a man, she feels empathy for the women she helps.

Alex is shocked when the news reaches him on the Peninsula that he has inherited the earldom. Not only did he never imagine he would accede to the title, he doesn't want to leave the army. The War Department is adamant that he take up his duties as earl, but gives him one last mission to perform on his way home: To capture a traitor passing vital intelligence to the enemy. With the meager information available, Alex sets sail for Ayr, Scotland in search of the agent -- a female. An ambush leaves him with a pistol ball in his shoulder, but Alex catches up with the woman again...or so he thinks. After she has a doctor treat his wound and then nurses him through a fever, Alex realizes Mrs. Aurora Sprague is not the havey-cavey female she seems. When the traitor again tries to kill "Major Alex Woodmore," and threatens Aurora, they flee...but will the secrets they keep, despite the passion that blazes between them, destroy their chance for love and a happy ending?

THE BANISHED BRIDE is absolutely wonderful! This compelling story of second chances and the healing power of love evokes, in turn, smiles and teary eyes. Alex and Aurora are marvelous, multi-layered characters with whom readers cannot help but fall in love. Both learned, at an early age, not to expect love or support from their families -- and rejection hurts, even when it comes from people undeserving of regard. Although they both have faults and hide their vulnerability behind a brave façade, Alex and Aurora have many admirable qualities -- qualities the other has never encountered in a member of the opposite sex. During their journey, they learn a great deal about each other -- and themselves -- and the more they discover, the more they want to know. But they must face their failures, and come to terms with the past, before they can embrace the future.

Andrea Pickens has penned an outstanding tale of two lonely people, scarred by past betrayals, who find love unexpectedly, and with a seemingly improbable partner. The evolution of Alex and Aurora's characters is wonderful to behold, as is the flowering of their irresistible attraction. In addition to marvelous character development, this well written, perfectly paced book contains evocative descriptions of places and events, a charming cast of secondary characters, and deft humor -- the latter most often displayed in Alex's teasing of Aurora and in their battles of wit.

I highly recommend THE BANISHED BRIDE. Regency devotees will adore this book, which will be a contender for the best Regency romance of the year, and all romance readers will be captivated by this wonderful, heart-tugging tale.

THE BANISHED BRIDE
On the way back from delivering a woman to safety in Scotland, Aurora Sprague, proprietor of the Sprague Agency for Distressed Females, is abducted by Major Alex Fenimore, the husband who abandoned her immediately after their wedding years ago. On the trail of a female spy feeding British secrets to the French, Alex has no idea that the woman across from him is the bride he left behind, and Aurora has no inkling that the man she considers "the most bumbling British agent in all of hristendom" is in fact her legal husband. Their search for the traitorous spy pushes Alex and Aurora together, but once the truth about their past surfaces, it threatens to destroy any feelings developing between them. A bit more sensual than most traditional Regencies, Pickens' latest romance offers a
wondrously spirited battle of wits that readers will just adore. Spiced with tart humor and graced with an intelligent, resourceful, and unconventional heroine, this is a Regency to savor.

BOOKLIST

I have to agree with the other reviewers here; this book was a real eye opener. The author's writing style was very easy to follow as it leads you through the philosophy of Kashmir Saivism, which I hadn't heard of till I saw this book. It does not go into great detail, which is what makes the book so appealing. It left me wanting to know more about this philosophy.

A great introduction. It may really open your eyes if you happened to be bogged down in Dogma.

I came to this book with some background in the topic, having done some previous study in the nondualistic philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism. However, I had always found my previous readings to be relatively tough going in spots and, in some instances, almost incomprehensible. Not so with Pickens' book. His story is the story of everyone who has wondered if there isn't something more than meets the eye when it comes to our daily lives. Where do you go when success isn't all that it is purported to be? Not all of us can travel to India and become a student of an enlightened master but, lucky for us, Pickens did and this book is that story. I would dare say that if read with an open heart and open mind, this book can (and just might) change your world. For the better.

John Picken spent several summers in northern India, studying with the last living master of Kashmir Shaivism, possibly the world's oldest religion, which had been passed down through generations through word-of-mouth. Picken was an MD and PhD; he had attained all the trappings of success but not the happiness his parents had predicted. He found contentment by practicing Kashmir Shaivism. According to this teaching, everything is God, and nothing is outside God, so we have within us the forces of nature--creation and destruction. Fear, the Protector, is built in as a survival mechanism. Once we recognize who we truly are--Creators, Destroyers, and Protectors, rather than "good" people who inexplicably ruin whatever we care about--we become able to control the forces of nature rather than allow them to control us. Yes, we go on diets because we are creators; yes, we eat junk food because we are destroyers. This is a very thought-provoking premise, which enables us to forgive our unhealthy behavior, then work against it consciously.

This is my favorite book by Ms. Pickens. The hero and heroine have some wonderful scenes together and you can tell they are made for each other. It was worth the wait to find out what the secret was that the villian was trying to keep hidden, and what it had to do with the heroine and her brother. I couldn't put the book down.

Ms. Pickens has created a gem of a book. The heroine is intelligent, compassionate, and charmingly idiosyncratic. The hero is the right mixture of strength, arrogance, honor, and humor. They find a common interest in botany, of all subjects. The subplot involving a nasty villain and family secrets complements the main romance, without overshadowing it.

It is time and cost consuming to get the first nine modules individually. You have to spend 6-10 times money to get all, than you get a single B1-9 compilation. Well, it is not exactly the same as the original nine modules. In this compilation, B1 is only a deogeon map; the "unimportant" parts of B2, B4, B5, B8 have been cut; one of the 5 mini-adventures in original B9 have been omitted and two of the rest are combined into single adventure. Nevertheless, it still have three modules appear complete -- B3, B6, B7 (though with a little modification.). Another great work in this compilation is to link the 11 individual adventures (3 from B9) into a D&D campaign in Karameikos. It is a sucessful step. TSR then published Gazetteer series and brought the game into a new direction. DMs may design a campaign game in the vast Mystara world, not just play each adventure independently.

If you are really to play the old and classic edition of D&D (not 3rd ED.), you may start here.

This is one of the best products ever put out by TSR - this colossal book (160+ pages!) includes the very best of modules B1 through B9 - forming an epic campaign that will take your PCs from level 1 to at least 5, with well over 200 hours of play time! From the Keep on the Borderlands to the Lost City buried far below the deserts of Ylaruam; from the blackest alleys of Karameikos to the dark forests of Rahasia, your players will revel in a "triple trilogy" introduction to D&D they'll never forget! For casual players who will irrevocably turn into hardcore gamers, this enormous set of adventures and stories is the ultimate challenge.

The book is well thought out;easy step by step instructions take you through everything you need. It even provides for common troubleshooting resolutions! I love it!

The visual aid is at the core of a presentation, so the laser RAM needs to work with about 2 megabytes of memory. For WordPerfect presentations, vector graphics are the native state. There is a bitmap editor with special creative and editing tools, such as air brush, eraser, flood fill, paint brush, pickup color and selective eraser. It edits and converts bitmapped graphics to vector graphics, so a presentation has bitmap tool power and vector graphic clarity. Author Elaine Elliott Pickens says that her book takes the beginning graphic artist and the non-artist from basic drawing board tools all the way to effective presenting of slide show drawings and graphics: I believe her.

This book is helpful no matter what your intentions are toward learning the language. Dr. Pickens was a professor of mine and his teaching methods are quite good.

I was so pleased with Schaum's Easy Outline for Spanish that I purchased the Easy Outline for French to review for an upcoming exam. I was not disappointed. Once again I found the same reader-friendly overview of all the absolute essentials of grammar explained in a straightforward manner. Gone are the days of thumbing through pages and pages of detailed explanations of key grammatical structures. The book was actually pleasant to read and, as expected, easy to study from.

I especially recommend this book for beginners (keeps you focused and avoids frustration)and those who have not used their French in awhile and want to brush up their skills.

I see the world in a whole new light...seriously! No fluff in that statement. After reading this book, I can truly say that I know how to sell anyone, anywhere, at anytime. It is so exciting to know that I can start my own business where I will be able to sell just about anything, and I know I will succeed at it. If you are like me, you hate to hear all of the inflated qualities of any topic. You want the bottom line! Well this book gives you just that. So, if you want one book that tells it all, here it is. When I open my business, I am going to give every salesman this book, and I know I will have a very successful business.

A beautiful collection of original writings by a very talented newcomer. Definitely worth a read.

The Earl of Sheffield was thought to be a shallow and selfish man. None understood the wisdom and shocking ideas that went on inside his head. None, that was, except for the anonymous writer who signed his essays as Firebrand. The man was exactly the type in which the Earl looked for as a pen pal. Someone he could actually speak intelligently with! Someone who would not look down upon his ideas because of his rank or reputation. Thus be began correspondence with Firebrand through his publisher. The Earl called himself Tinder. What he did not know was that Firebrand was female!

Lady Augusta Hadley was considered to be "on the shelf". She went to balls only as chaperon for her younger sister, Marianne. No one, not even her dear sister, knew that Augusta was the famous Firebrand that all the ton spoke about.... Full of adventure, a tad of romance, and a lot of dry wit. I found this one to be highly enjoyable. Definitely recommended.

Their first meeting was not one they would remember fondly. Lady Augusta Hadley spilled punch all over the Earl of Sheffield. But there was more to Gussie than clumsiness, more to the earl than his rakish lifestyle. Little did they realize that they were soulmates. Gussie is the political essayist known as "the Firebrand"; the earl is her correspondent, "Tinder." Their letters kindle ideas; their public meetings strike sparks. A conflagration is the inevitable result!

The Earl of Sheffield was thought to be a shallow and selfish man. None understood the wisdom and shocking ideas that went on inside his head. None, that was, except for the anonymous writer who signed his essays as Firebrand. The man was exactly the type in which the Earl looked for as a pen pal. Someone he could actually speak intelligently with! Someone who would not look down upon his ideas because of his rank or reputation. Thus be began correspondence with Firebrand through his publisher. The Earl called himself Tinder. What he did not know was that Firebrand was female!

Lady Augusta Hadley was considered to be "on the shelf". She went to balls only as chaperon for her younger sister, Marianne. No one, not even her dear sister, knew that Augusta was the famous Firebrand that all the ton spoke about.... Full of adventure, a tad of romance, and a lot of dry wit. I found this one to be highly enjoyable. Definitely recommended.