Ever since John McLean's partner, Stuart Reed, died, the Fort Dare detective has done whatever he could to help Stuart's widow Natalie. Whether painting her house or telephoning occasionally to make sure she's okay, John has lived by the cop's code: if your partner dies, take care of his family. And always, Natalie has found some way to repay him because she doesn't want to feel obligated to anyone ever again. But suddenly, she finds a body in her study, and she hopes the man coming to the rescue will be John. She finds comfort in his arms, because he's become her friend. However, when he insists she stay at his house, she realizes she might want more than just friendship.

Single dad, John, supports his ex who requires skilled medical care, but even before she became ill, he knew their marriage was unraveling. Now,he'd like to keep Natalie around, but he feels he has no right to lust after his partner's widow, especially when he has domestic obligations himself.

When a second intruder breaks into Natalie's house, John realizes something sinister is going on, and it might involve his late partner. How can he get to the root of the problem without shattering lovely Natalie's belief in her husband? And how can he not lose his heart along the way?

This is the first in a trilogy by Ms. Johnson. Look for high emotional drama, believable characters, and a depth of human feeling in this well-crafted story. I chuckled at an obvious computer terminology glitch (those old beasties are 386s and 486s), but I applauded the otherwise skilled crafting of this engaging read. Highly recommended.

Years of discussion acclimate her to theoretical details of murder, but still leave Natalie Reed unprepared for gristly reality. When she discovers a body in her study, shock and terror take their toll. Natalie takes comfort that her husband's partner responds to the call and insists on finding her a safe place to stay. As details unfold, Natalie finds she must reevaluate the marriage to that bound her to Stuart Reed for three years. Indeed, Natalie faces, for the first time, the careless cruelty that belied the charm and sexiness her husband usually displayed.

Detective John McLean lives the cop's creed: If your partner dies, take care of his family. In spite of his own responsibilities to two young children and an ex-wife disabled by a crippling disease, John finds the time to paint her house, make repairs, and be available as a friend by phone and email. As the danger to Natalie becomes apparent, John finds himself protecting her with something more than just devotion and duty.

Friendship grows into something more in HIS PARTNER'S WIFE by Janice Kay Johnson. With a powerful hook to kick off the start of the book, and a surprising solution to missing money, this author keeps the pages turning. Emotionally gripping, each reevaluates the man who brought them together. The heroine was married to a good cop gone bad; the hero was his partner. Both find themselves questioning not just the past and the bad cop's influence on their lives, but also their own judgement. The act of reevaluation, however, brings redemption, allowing them to open to possibilities previously unconsidered. The first of a trilogy, HIS PARNTER'S WIFE PARTNER'S highly recommended.

Alice Morse Earle has written several books on life in Colonial America. This is the first one of her books I've read, and I am eager to move on to another volume, perhaps Child Life in Colonial Days. Mrs. Earle's "Home Life" is a fascinating description of everyday life --- the chores, the tools, the dwelling places, the foods, the sights and sounds --- that Colonial Americans knew. Have you ever seen a strange tool or implement in a museum, an antique shop, or hanging on the wall at a country restaurant, and no one seems to know exactly what it is or what it was used for? Read this book: its many illustrations will more than likely include that mysterious object; and Mrs. Earle will describe clearly what it was and how it was used. This book should be in the library of every enthusiast of American antiques. Without a doubt, this book contains information found nowhere else in a book now in print. This is not a history of Colonial America --- although it contains many interesting tidbits about our country's earliest days. It is, however, an excellent description of everyday life in America, 1600 - 1800, with special emphasis on New England and Virginia. As such, this book would be useful not just to historians and antique collectors, but to writers, museum curators, and anyone who wants to understand Colonial America.

This hundred-year-old work retains its vitality and usefulness.
In her wonderfully readable narrative, Earle conveys life in the colonies with vividness missing from most conventional texts. Starting with basic shelter, which were sometimes actually caves in the earliest days, she goes on to describe in detail the critical element of food supply, with careful explanations of culinary practices and useful drawings to illustrate the often-obscure utensils. (This latter feature will fascinate antique buffs.) Also covered are the home production of textiles, the dress of the colonists, travel, religious and social practices, flower gardens, and other matters, providing modern readers an insight into everyday colonial life hard to find elsewhere.
Earle's work is a feast of enjoyable information for history readers, collectors, and anyone else who wants to know how the early settlers lived. (The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

When I found this book in the Amazon book store, I wondered if it was yet another autobiography by an English professor in a publish or perish bind at an obscure college, a New York off-off broadway author, or a BOBO with bucks restoring a mansion somewhere. WOW! what a pleasant surprise! HONEY AND ASHES by Canadian Janice Kulyk Keefer is as powerful as A BRIDGE ON THE DRINA, A WOMAN IN AMBER, SHATTERED SELVES, OR THE HAUNTED LAND. Don't they give out awards in Canada?

Kulyk-Keefer is Canadian of Ukrainian-Polish descent. (Keefer is her husband's last name.) She says the feeling of never "fitting in" with her Anglo-Canadian neighbors and classmates as a child inspired her as an adult to search out her own roots, thinking this might point her toward her "real" identity and her "real" home.

As part of the effort to constuct her "real" identity, she traces the geneology of her family, interviews the surviving members and others who knew them, and undertakes a difficult journey to the village of her mother's birth in the Ukraine. Since her father was of Polish descent, she visits her last known relatives in Poland on her way back from her mother's village. This may all sound fairly straightforward, but I have seldom seen such elegant and beautiful prose coupled with such tenacious research. The result is the resolution of a personal mystery, or at the least, the beginning of knowledge.

Anyone who has ever poured over old letters; dug through photo albums and other family treasures; searched Census, administrative, and other records; struggled with bureacrats to travel to a remote location will appreciate Ms. Keefer's efforts. She is a student of the history of her parent's bloody homeland. She is the ethnographer who waits with great patience while an old woman recalls with extreme pain and difficulty the day the Nazis shot many of her relatives, and the day the Russians collected the rest and sent them to the Gulag. She is the scholar pouring over old mouldering papers and notes in the archives. And above all, she is the poet who casts her story into a tale laden with rich metaphor....

"Are we, in the end only what we can remember? Or, are we also all that lies deep inside us, stored in the niches of a long, dark corridor whose door we shut behind us long ago? The painfulness of remembering--the physical process of recall. How we speak of triggering memory, as if it were a loaded gun."

Janice Kulyk Keefer explores her duel heritage as she is a Canadian by birth and a Ukrainian-Pole by blood. Keefer struggles to find a sense of belonging between these two very different worlds which act as threads that intertwine, weaving her identity. Keefer lyrically captures her memories and experiences while reflecting on her past in a manner that touches the reader for all time. A statement from the novel that has lingered in my mind is: "Belonging-a word that's both an outstretched hand and a fist clenched round your heart, a fist that won't let go." A truly magnificent read!

My 2 year old son received this book for Valentine's Day last year, and he has loved it from day one. It is charmingly illustrated, and the text is both lyrical and amusing. He knows it by heart and loves to "help" me with the next words, as well as point out all the familiar things in the pictures. This is one that will grow with him, too, as he gets older and learns to read himself. And excellent book, and one that you AND your child will enjoy reading again and again!

A great read for all ages!Funny and upbeat!Wonderful illustrations!

The best title so far on the bree

Complete and useful for breeders and pat owners,judges too. Good job

This is a well-researched historical novel with a mystery and a romance. A must read for anyone who enjoys a well-crafted story.

In the 1850s the Hawaiian Islands were the focus of many people's dreams. Missionaries dreamed of bring God--and "civilization"--to the savage, heathen Hawaiians. Whalers, businessmen, and politicians dreamed of wealth and power--provided they could wrest control of the government completely away from King Kamehameha. And the islanders themselves dreamed of peace and independence. The Island Snatchers tells the story of Anne Cartwright, the widow of a missionary who has become a nurse to the islanders, and of Dr. Matthew Cabe, a man who comes to the islands to find answers about his father's downfall. They are brought together through a murder and a search for answers. Romantic Times said Janice Johnson "knows how to combine romance and suspense into good reading," and they are absolutely right. The Island Snatchers is a gripping novel that you will want to read again and again.

This book is GREAT! It is filled with easy-to-do, fun experiments, many of which my 10 year-old homeschooler can do on his own. There are experiments in 5 different scientific areas of study which can easily be worked into the science programs - astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science and physics. My son looks forward to the days that we do the experiments from this book. It helps make science his favorite subject.

I checked this book out at the library for my kids and loved it so much, I bought it! Easy but facinating experiments with stuff you have around the house. I'm using it as part of my home school curriculum. My 1st and 3rd graders love it!

I bought this for my son who loves math and building things. We've only gone through four chapters so far, but we've had great fun identifying how many right angles there are in his room and folding a oragami whale. This book was a real treat for him. Parents of gifted children should dive into this whole series with their kids, and I think they're great for teaching any kid that math is fun!

Her books teaches geometry using hand-on activities for all grade levels which children love. It teaches form the basics of geometry to the advancements. Teachers and students will both find this book interesting

I got this book (and the others in the play and find out about series by Janice Vancleave) when I decided to start homeschooling my daughter. The 'experiments' in the book are very easy - generally you really do have the materials in your house (except for maybe the pipe cleaners). We have used it as a supplement to our Usborne books on Butterflies and Creepy Crawlies - just pick the section that has experiments related to the topic you are discussing. Great! Would be a great addition to the Sonlight Curriculum. And best of all the experiments are typically fun! The section on camouflaging was great - we played a hide-and-seek game with bugs we made from pipe cleaners (a bit hard for a 4 yr old though) and had Dad try to find them. It really made the concept understandable to her. It is a game she wants to play often now!

This is a wonderful book for anyone who is homeschooling or teaching using the thematic unit approach. The experiments are simple but effective. When the book says it is fun, it is not just a catchy phrase to sell books! I found it at my local library and am thrilled to have been introduced to Janice VanCleave's special approach to teaching.

As a math minor at Mount Holyoke (yes, my professors actually wrote the book!) I found the book extremely useful especially as an introduction to writing math reports and papers. You will too. :)

This book and the accompanying course helped me enter higher mathematics and discover what being a mathematician was really about. It gave in depth insight into the beginnings of mathematical research and how it gets done.