Silent Prey - T. M. Simmons, Author

English Toffee

(My sister-in-law, Pat, gave me this recipe and it's great for easy Christmas gifts. It's also perfect for the holidays, since it's full of calories! - T.M. Simmons)

 

Ingredients:

 

1 lb. butter

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans, split in half

1 lb. Hershey's Chocolate Bar (plain)

(Pat said that she used two 5 oz. chocolate bars and it was plenty of chocolate.)

 

Melt butter, sugar and vanilla on medium high heat.

Add ½ of the pecans and cook until 320 degrees on the candy thermometer. The mixture will be a light caramel color and have a slight burnt smell. Do not overcook.

Pour onto a flat piece of aluminum foil.

 

Melt chocolate bar and spread over the toffee with a flat knife.

Top with remaining pecans.

 

After cooled, you can break into pieces and put into cute little boxes for gifts. Yum!

 

Silent Prey - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish

She raced through the blowing snow, savoring the feel of the cold and wind.  Glorying in feeling... being once again.  Enjoying the fact that traveling was so easy, so quick.  Her feet flew over the snow, and merely thinking of a remembered place brought her to it.  No need for heavy clothing to impede movement or slow her down.  Even the tangled underbrush didn't present obstacles.  She had no recall of how long the non-existence of her grave had lasted.  Only slowly were the memories returning.  Most of them, at first, were the painful ones.  Children's beautiful chubby faces losing their plumpness and fading into skeletal skulls with only a layer of skin stretched over them.  Their cries fading near the end as their mother tried unsuccessfully to share her scant remaining body heat.  Finally, the thankfulness that they suffered no longer and her longing to join them.

In Silent Prey Simmons brings us Nenegean, who for some reason has left her grave and is wreaking havoc on the Northwood.  For some strange reason she steals children.  Then there is Dr. Channing Drury who has come to the Northwood from Texas to possibly join Dr. Silver in his practice.  Keoman Thunderwood is from the Ojibway tribe and is a Mide, or for most of us a medicine man.  As the electricity starts to fly between Channing and Keoman, she finds herself defending Nenegean where Keoman sees her only as a demon that must be done away with.  Channing reasons that Nenegean doesn't harm the children she takes but there are other children being taken that are being harmed so Nenegean believes she is protecting them from the real demon.  Keoman sees her as a being that has no feelings so she can't possibly 'think' anything through but only takes them because of the loss of her own when she lived many years ago.  No matter which is right and which is wrong, there are children that are being harmed and something must be done to keep them safe.

I've read everything this author has written and after reading each book I tell myself this is the best, it can't get any better... wrong.  Every book is always better than the last.  As I read Silent Prey I tried to understand the motive of Nenegean and when I finally did understand I tried to decide who the real demon was.  Well, as always, she kept me guessing until the end!  This is one heck of an author and I will always follow her books and impatiently wait for the next.

Golden Girl - Mary Kennedy, Author

Oatmeal bars(Mary Kennedy's own special recipe)

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 and 1/2 cups oats, either quick cook or regular
1 cup brown sugar (I use light brown)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz of jam (I usually use 14 oz)
1 and 3/4 sticks butter

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in chilled butter. Place half the mixture in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Press down with fingertips. Spread jam on top. Spread the remaining oatmeal mixture on top. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Cool and cut into squares or bars.


Golden Girl - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat, Think With Your Taste Buds: A Book and A Dish

Amber Fielding may be young but that doesn't stop her from enjoying a life of luxury to its fullest.  Her father, who owns one of the best hotels in South Beach, has made sure she wants for nothing but also that a price comes with everything which includes her working for what she has.

Her beauty won her a feature in Teen Vogue and she has now become an item of publicity but the publicity manager her father found for her isn't quite what she had dreamed of.  Then she meets Nick Crawford who is doing a documentary on the architect of South Beach.  Not only is Nick 'hot' he also seems to have an attraction to Amber and has promised to include shots of she and her best friends in his documentary.  But... there is something not quite right.  He seems to be attracted to her friend Shay too.  And when he sends a beautiful arrangement of flowers to her friend Zia, that really struck a note with Amber.  He was becoming her boyfriend, wasn't he?

Being the owner of a hotel like the Fielding often has its perks.  One of the perks turned out to be Johnny Wilde and his band The Changelings booking the whole 11th floor of the hotel.  So when Amber is invited to the after party she can't wait.  This was going to be fun, or was it?

Author Mary Kennedy has written a book that follows Amber Fielding and her best friends through good times as well as bad.  She has given Amber character with morals as she takes her through trust and believing in people, but also shows how that trust can sometimes be deceiving.  This book is one that I feel most young ladies would enjoy reading and even learn a little from.