Reviews

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Riverdancer — VINE VOICE — Action-packed and family-friendly
5.0 out of 5 stars (Desert Jeepers)

The Wright Cousins are off on another adventure — this time, to the desert Southwest of the United States. While their parents are working on a top secret mission, cousins Robert, Lindy, Jonathan, Kimberly, and Tim venture into the desert to solve a mystery of their own. Legend has it that the remains of a Spanish galleon from the 1600s can be found somewhere nearby, but the story has yet to be proven. Luckily, the five cousins are filled with knowledge and ingenuity that get them where they want to go while protecting others along the way. This second book in the Wright Cousin Adventures series stands alone but incorporates the same characters and style as the first book. Dialogue propels the narrative, and each of the cousin’s personalities comes through clearly in the delightful banter they share. Always interested in adventure and helping others, the Wright cousins display not only a positive relationship with one another, but also supportive and encouraging interactions with others in their community. Action and excitement are at the core of this book, and each moment seems to bring a new challenge to the cousins. This design keeps the pages turning and readers engaged from the first moment to the last. Military references and pro-American sentiments pepper the narrative and showcase a family whose roots run deep in American culture. Inspired by adventures from the author’s own life, this book incorporates many experiences shared by families of similar backgrounds. Fans of The Boxcar Children series will appreciate a similar style and wholesome design of this collection, which is sure to appeal to readers of a wide range of ages. This is an action-packed addition to libraries for middle grade and young adult readers.

I received a copy of this book from the author and I chose to leave this review.

Riverdancer — VINE VOICE — Fast-paced and action-packed
5.0 out of 5 stars (Rheebakken 2) November 2, 2022

The freedom of the entire world is at stake, and it is up to one man to preserve that freedom—no matter the cost. Fighter pilot Eric Brown has been tasked with the top secret mission of ferrying King Straunsee and his daughter Allesandra to safety in the United States. Unfortunately, there are many others who would choose to see the monarch destroyed rather than permitting him to secure global freedom. Luckily, Eric is an accomplished pilot who not only has the skills to evade danger but also the heart to see his mission through to a successful conclusion. This action-packed novel launches readers directly into the fray on the first page and does not let go until the story’s conclusion. Nearly every page puts adventure at the forefront as the protagonists are flung from one catastrophe to the next. Throughout the book, military jargon and codes are embedded within the dialogue, which will particularly appeal to readers who have an interest in the technical intricacies of military language. Occasional references are made to prayer and God, but these are few and are not central to the overall plot. Eric is the primary figure in the story, but the narrative does occasionally shift to incorporate other points of view to ensure that readers have a full understanding of what is happening at choice moments in the book. While this novel does have a specific place within the canon of stories written by Gregory O. Smith, it is not necessary to have read any of the others in order for this book to make sense. This is a fast-paced, action-centered story that will appeal to young adult readers who appreciate military stories with a wholesome approach.

I received a copy of this book from the author and I chose to leave this review.

Riverdancer — VINE VOICE — A wholesome family adventure
(The Treasure of the Lost Mine–Wright Cousin Adventures) October 17, 2022
The five Wright cousins are spending the summer on Grandpa Wright’s farm in an effort to provide the work that is necessary to keep the farm afloat. While there, the teens are determined to locate Great-Great Grandpa Jack’s lost gold mine. Between strange occurrences happening nearby, dastardly villains wheedling their way onto Grandpa Wright’s land, and the work that needs to be done on the property, there is no shortage of excitement for the Wright cousins to experience. And when they explore a mysterious clue left behind by Great-Great Grandpa Jack, they discover more than they expected hidden in the nearby landscape. This first in the Wright Cousin Adventures series introduces readers to the close-knit Wright clan and the family farm they love so dearly. Inspired by a real life discovery made by the author and his own family, this novel brings early young adult readers into the Wild West as the Wright cousins discover more about the hidden gold mine with each passing chapter. Occasional illustrations help orient readers to the space in which the Wright cousins find themselves, and the pacing of the book overall makes the narrative highly accessible to young people. Reminiscent of the Boxcar Children series, this wholesome story involves close family relationships, ample dialogue and action, and the danger and humor that naturally enhance tales for young people. Fans of adventure stories filled with heart will fly through this first book and eagerly reach for the next installment.

I received a copy of this book from the author and I chose to leave this review.

Lori K — Fun & exciting read
5.0 out of 5 stars (The Case of the Missing Princess) October 4, 2022
Lori K — Love a series of books
5.0 out of 5 stars (The Clue in the Missing Plane) October 4, 2022
Lori K — Fun & Exciting Read
5.0 out of 5 stars (The Mystery of Treasure Bay) October 4, 2022
Matt Williams — Awesome read!
5.0 out of 5 stars (The Mystery of Treasure Bay) September 1, 2022
Our children- ages 15,13 & 8 love hearing books by this author. These books are hard to put down and have been great for our family! I recommended our local library purchase the books by him.
Julia G. Anderson — Great book
5.0 out of 5 stars (The Mystery of Treasure Bay) August 23, 2022

Linda H — Mysteries and adventures

5.0 out of 5 stars  (The Wright Disguise) August 22, 2022
Russel Smith — We Love This Book Author
5.0 out of 5 stars (Strength of the Mountains) July 11, 2022
Our children love this book series so much that we bought all of Gregory O Smith’s books in hardcover for guests that stay in our AirBNB to enjoy! Highly recommended author!

Reviewed in Canada on June 27, 2022

Loved it awesome adventure on survival and a bit of romance.
PathfinderPenguin — Survival Adventure!! -I’ve read it 3 times!

5.0 out of 5 stars (Strength of the Mountains) June 16, 2022

I am a college student with very little time to read for fun.
-When I first picked this book up, I figured that it was just going to be another survival book, like Hatchet or something. Let me say that this book is actually good. Basic synopsis? -The main character, a dude named Matt ends up stranded in the mountains with no hope of rescue because, well, phone service is a nope. The REFRESHING thing is that he’s actually smart about it. (I don’t know about you, but characters being dumb in books is a nope for me, just can’t handle them lighting themselves on fire or leaving their food to rot, and while making mistakes is allowed, making the same dumb mistakes over and over is not.)

MATT IS ACTUALLY SMART, HE USES HIS BRAIN! He has skills that develop over the course of the book! CRAZY, I KNOW!

Here’s a list of things I like: (Mild spoilers)
-Matt makes friends with a raccoon (dubbed Robin Hood) that becomes his buddy after the bandit eats a whole lot of Matt’s granola bars.
-Matt and Robin Hood go exploring in order to find their way out of the valley, and discover things (not listed for spoiler reasons) that are pretty stinking cool. I mean, I wouldn’t be mad to end up in that valley myself, just give me a plane and better phone coverage, and maybe a generator or something haha.
-There’s more adventure/excitement than your typical running from a wildfire scene. Haha, let’s just say that riding a hot air balloon through a storm is just the beginning for my man Matt.
-Matt is a college student like myself, and well, I relate to him in a lot of ways.
-It’s entirely clean, there’s no bad langauge or innuendos, which is SO NICE. I am not ashamed to recommend this book to others because there’s nothing in it to hide. It’s a beautiful, thrilling, funny, and exciting book that I’ve had to read three times just because I couldn’t get enough. The only con is that there isn’t a sequel, cuz you know that’d be gold too.

PathfinderPenguin — This should be a movie!

5.0 out of 5 stars  (Rheebakken 2) June 16, 2022

Pilots, planes, and princesses, can it get any better than that?? -I say no, but that’s just me.
THIS BOOK IS AWESOME! I love the main characters, I love the storyline, I love the worldbuilding (Or I guess worldsaving? Because they’re trying to save the world?)
Synopsis? People are being attacked, planes are going down, the free world is in danger and flying through the middle of it is an air force pilot named Eric Brown. He doesn’t know what’s happening, just that he’s been ordered to pick up a package. Turns out the package is King Stransee, his daughter, the Princess Allesandra, and their top secret briefcase with contents that will detemine the course of the war. -There’s dogfights, tank fights, espionage, and international intrigue that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire way through. There may or may be a bobsled chase too, but that’s all top secret information and you definitely didn’t hear it from me.

Honestly the depth and width of this story is so good, its one of my favorite books, and if it was a movie it’d be a blockbuster.

PathfinderPenguin — A quest for a spanish galleon? I say yes!!

5.0 out of 5 stars  (Desert Jeepers, Wright Cousin Adventures) June 16, 2022

I love this book! The Wright Cousins strike again as they pursue a long lost Spanish Galleon in the Southwestern Dessert. That mystery alone would be enough, but wait, there’s ghost stagecoaches, missing pilots, and a nefarious bad guys.
10/10 would read again!!
5.0 out of 5 stars  (Treasure of the Lost Mine) June 6, 2022
It is hard to keep family friendly, wholesome books on hand for my daughter because she is an avid reader (she’s 9). She read this book in a day or so, and couldn’t wait for me to order the next books in the series. She enjoyed how creative the children were. She said the kids were just like her. We definitely recommend this book!
Clark Evenson — Crazy fun!!
5.0 out of 5 stars (The Wright Diguise) May 17, 2022
I have read almost all of the “Wright Cousin Adventures”…I enjoyed this one very much. It is fun to see the characters develop, and their relationships blossom. While I think the book’s character “Tim” can be overly silly/annoying, I can still appreciate his slapstick humor. I can relate to Kimberly’s hair coloring episode, as I once accidentally colored my hair silver purple. I am always amazed at how seamlessly I am sucked into the action sequences of the “Wright Cousin Adventures”. The “Wright Disguise” was no exception, I love the action and tech. I know my sons, and daughter will love this book! The characters in these books are great role models. I just finished reading it tonight. Keep up the great writing Mr. Smith!!! Your readers appreciate your humor, and all the awesome tech in your books. When are you going to make a theme park or movies for these books?!!!
5.0 out of 5 stars  (Treasure of the Lost Mine) April 20, 2022
I love reviewing books but some of my favorite books for review are the ones I can share with my kiddos and get them involved in the review process. So whenever I get a children’s book to review, I preview it first to make sure it aligns with our standards, and once that is done and is approved by this mama I introduce it to the kids. As soon as the kids saw the cover of this book they were intrigued and wanted to know more about it. It definitely kept them entertained during our morning read aloud time. They hated that the end of the chapters leave you into a cliffhanger, but I for one loved that since it kept them wanting more!

This is definitely a great book for boys who love adventures! It has bad guys and good guys, family time, gold mines, adventures and even a military tank! My kids were definitely enthralled with the story and enjoyed every minute of it. They can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

As a mom I am looking for good books for my kids. We are pretty conservative in our beliefs so finding good books that align with that is getting harder and harder nowadays but then comes along an author I have not heard of before and my faith is restored, because there are good books for kids out there, we just have to dig a little harder.

This is a very clean book and filled with a classic adventure that will remind you of the western movies of old times. I highly recommend this not only as a read aloud but definitely for kids ages 8 and up! My kids give it a quadruple thumbs up!

I received a copy of this book from the author. I was not required to post a positive review. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

Julia G. Anderson — More adventures with the Wright cousins
5.0 out of 5 stars  (The Wright Disguise) April 9, 2022
H — Love it!

5.0 out of 5 stars (Desert Jeepers) April 2, 2022

My son has started devouring this series and says he LOVES the books! Good call on my mom’s part for buying him the first one. Two thumbs up at our house!
Marie Cornfield — Good exciting story for an 8 year old !

5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed (Desert Jeepers) in Canada on November 12, 2021 

aaron cross — “Wonderful”
5.0 out of 5 stars  August 6, 2021
“Wonderful product for a great price!”
Consultx — “Kids favorite book”

5.0 out of 5 stars  July 26, 2021

“I sent my niece and nephew several books for summer reading. This has been the favorite of both kids. The little intro video on the authors web site set the stage and they loved it. Appropriate for all kids, just good fun. One child is a slightly slower reader but the story was compelling and kept them engaged. Highly recommend.”

Amazon Customer — “Great new series (to us)”

5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 April 2021

Verified Purchase
“Bought for 7 year old bookworm granddaughter who loves adventure stories and read it in almost one session!”
Buzzyflight — “Wham! Bang! Outstanding!”

5.0 out of 5 stars   Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2021

“We bought the first four books in this series and just had to buy more. This series is more than great! It should be on every bookshelf for any kid who loves adventure. This is the real deal and my grandson and I have been reading the series and are now into ‘Secret Agents Don’t Like Broccoli’. There’s no doubt that these books are classics and written far and away above most. First of all, the high standards and mannerisms of the kids are uplifting – not your typical lewd cartoon characters. The individuals are well developed and fun. Good laughs and hair-raising events pepper the stories throughout and the author is noticeably well versed and experienced in the essentials and technicalities of good writing. It’s a real pleasure to find books of such caliber for children today. Thanks to the author and hope to see a continuing stream of books.”
Julia G. Anderson — “Great !”

5.0 out of 5 stars   Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2021–The Case of the Missing Princess

Verified Purchase

5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2021–The Treasure of the Lost Mine

Verified Purchase
Seth Poulson — “Fun, engaging and highly recommend!!!”
5.0 out of 5 stars 

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2021–The Treasure of the Lost Mine

Verified Purchase
H. W. Longfellow — “Mystery and Fun”

5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2021–The Treasure of the Lost Mine

Verified Purchase
Susan — “Worth while books”
Buzzyflight — “Outstanding Kid Series!”

5.0 out of 5 stars  “I have a kid who can’t read enough and a kid who can’t find anything she likes to read. They both loved this book. My girls are 10. I wish I could’ve bought this books series in a box set.”  (5-Stars, Amazon Review for The Treasure of the Lost Mine, August 29, 2020)

Olivia Y. — “A Great Adventure Story”
Russel Smith — “Very engaging!”
5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020  Verified Purchase
“Fantastic book! Loved by the whole family!”
(Reach for the Stars)
Russel Smith — “Fun and adventurous!”
5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020 Verified Purchase
KJD — “Couldn’t put the book the book down!”
Clark Evenson — “Amazing Book”
5.0 out of 5 stars   Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2020