Laura Sullivan: The Modern Romantic New Relaxing Classical Piano Music

Winds of Magic and Timeless were probably my favorites on this CD.  It is tough to choose as they are all so beautiful. I took this to school with me after I got it. My students know me well. When I am stressed I play music with no words. This year I’ve had to be very selective with what I usually play. I have a student on the Autism Spectrum with sensitivity issues. He sits right in front of my desk, so playing music can be very disrupting to him. I noticed something with this CD. I told him if it bothered him to let me know and I would move it, turn it down, or turn it off. He has a lot of tics when his senses are over stimulated. This is something he is working on. He was not having the best day with his tics. I noticed when I put the CD on they did not increase. When we came to the song Come Home his shoulders actually relaxed and the tics subsided for a while. I told his mom about this and the CD. They and his therapists are trying different things. If this will help him then I will provide them with a copy, just not this one. I am having surgery in a couple of days. This will accompany me to rehab as I know I will need the relaxation. I was trying to pick the best music to take and this is it. I grew up in a musical family. My father played 11 instruments and had a gospel quartet. From the time I was little until two days beforeh he entered the hospital and then passed away I sat with him as he played the piano for me. For this reason I have an affinity to music that has piano in it. I can say without a doubt that my father would have loved Laura Sullivan’s compositions. I look forward to more of her music in the future.

Indiana Belle by John A. Heldt

Genre: Adult, suspense

Source: I purchased a copy.

This is the third book in the American Journey series. This time the author takes us to the Roaring Twenties. You don’t have to read the first two books to read and enjoy this one. They read just like stand-alone books. In this book we are presented with a problem that any time traveler fears. What happens if something can and should be prevented in the past and you know it will change the future if you do anything to change it? This is this situation that faces our main character. Cameron Coelho is completing his dissertation on life and the social implications during the 1920s. He buys the journals of Candice Bell who is a reporter and is murdered. He gets to meet Candice and sparks begin to fly. But what happens when you fall in love with someone and you know the date and manner in which they will die?  Do you stop it knowing the possible consequences? 

In this book we not only get to relish the entire time travel experience, but we get to live vicariously through the author in the time of the 1920s.  I love that the author always spends so much time in research s that the reader feels they are a part of the time period. This one is a little different and has some wonderful twists. I highly recommend it and the rest of the series.

Mercer Street by John A. Heldt

Genre: Adult, suspense

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

My Thoughts:

Give me a good time travel book any day and let me live in my own fantasy world. John Heldt has created two wonderful worlds. First we are in present time where Susan Peterson’s husband has died while having an affair. To ease the pain she goes to California with her mother and her daughter. Things take a real quick turn when the three of them time travel back to 1938 after meeting a professor.  Susan’s mother gets to meet her parents and herself as an infant when they were new refugees.

Susan and her daughter each fall for a different man. The problem is they must be careful not to change things that will alter their future. This means they will be forced to make some very tough decisions. That is okay because the author has given us three very independent and tough women. This has everything I could want. Time travel, history and some romance that is not all mushy.  The amount of research that went into this novel is what makes it so authentic and believable. I enjoyed the first book in this series. I highly recommend it to you.