Sarah Butland's Blog, page 9

Protected: When You Are Told Being You Is Wrong

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

A Book Launch Like No Other

The Power of Song – 25 Years of Stanfest by Troy Greencorn was launched Saturday night in an epic way and I was invited. What an honour it was to be in the seats of the deCoste Performing Arts Centre alongside a dear friend and fellow writer to celebrate the book, music and people!

A live event that was a long time in the making, Greencorn invited Còig, one of Atlantic Canada’s hottest musical acts, and Carl and Derek, to perform to a captured audience and the acts admitted to be just as delighted to be on stage once again. This wonderful mix of story telling, friendship, music and, above all, passion worked beautifully to make it a night to remember.

A festival in memory of the great Nova Scotia talent Stan Rogers, StanFest celebrates folk music in Canso where careers have been launched, friendships formed and memories made and shared. The MC of the night is well known to festival attendees, Stephen Antle took the stage with humour, grace and shed some collective tears with musicians, fans and organizers.

It was definitely a book launch I’ll remember for many years and, along with the book itself, the night made me eager to experience the festival in coming years.

Thanks for the music, the laughs and the memories,

Sarah Butland

Losing It At 40 by Sarah Butland

Celebrate my launch of my first ever romance novel and download the book today and review it tomorrow. Pretty please! With icing on top!

Losing It At 40:
Being alone, a virgin and comfortable in her own skin, Annie, like a lot of us, dreads turning forty. Turning forty tends to mean more challenges physically, in the bedroom and beyond. Losing It At Forty is Anne’s story and while she has, so far, lived a mundane life her world is about to change. Sitting at a bar, Annabelle comes to the decision to loosen up and lose her virginity. Starting with no longer using her nickname and wanting to be referred to as her full name, Annabelle.

Press Release

This launched yesterday officially and already has two five start reviews! Three more and it goes to print. Here is what people are saying:

Robyn5.0 out of 5 stars Romantic and hot, hot, hot!! Reviewed in Canada on June 22, 2021 Loved this book! The main character was so relatable and down to earth. I could really get behind her and wanted her to succeed in love. It has the romance and the heat! Didn’t want to out it down.
linda berry5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read! Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2021 Poignant, funny, and engaging! A fun read!
Rebecca: The character is definitely spicier than what I expected
Marise: finally finished the book….i loved it and didn’t want it to end ….
Tracy: Great job @Sarah Butland !! I told you you woukd do great. Im an advid romance fan and i loved it.

Will your name to be added to my list of reviews next?

Buy it now at https://amzn.to/3d55plG for your American account, https://amzn.to/3j1qcKS if you’re in Canada!

Many thanks to my publisher, Books To Go Now, and the team for making my first *real* experience an amazing one!

Thanks for reading and reviewing,

Sarah Butland
Romance author

My Extended Review of Awakening My Heart by Andrea Miller

Being raised by a Presbyterian minister and his wife, religion was a part of our upbringing and, at the very least, weekly schedule. Going to church every Sunday was a routine I was a part of but didn’t feel involved in despite always being intrigued by religion of any kind.

Admittedly ignorant to much of Buddhism, growing up in a Christian home where I, too, was quite ignorant to that religion, this book did wonders for me! Yes, I would recognize a Buddha, the concept of Zen and the idea of Yoga but that only scratches the surface of what Nova Scotia author, Andrea Miller, touches on.

Struggling immensely through this last year (or is it two weeks), especially the last few months, grasping for peace, love and acceptance has been exhausting. When my son William, of Wild Willie’s Book Reviews, connected with Andrea Miller with plans to interview her, I was interested in other books she wrote. She wrote My First Book of Canadian Birds as well as The Day Buddha Woke Up, two books for children, but also this book – Awakening My Heart: Essays, Articles and Interviews on the Buddhist Life and I was immediately hooked.

In this easy to read but powerfully written collection of essays, articles and interviews, including one with the beloved Canadian icon Raffi, this book is a breath of fresh air, especially now. With lock downs happening around the world and the idea of staying home to remain healthy, finding peace with that and embracing the slower pace is vital to our mental health. I adored Baby Beluga and Down By The Bay as a kid, reciting the songs over and over again! To learn he is still producing music makes me want to listen!

The Buddhist life is not about constant peace and acceptance, there is suffering involved as well and movement, both politically and spiritually and physically. Miller takes a deep dive into Buddhist Masters, the acceptance of females into traditionally male areas of the practice and simple, life changing ideas that are subtle but oh so effective.

There were many times I had to pause, let the concept sink in, look at the birds and hear them, and then read the passage again. Especially now, the section titled “Loneliness is Fatal” screams to be read and read again and then lived. It is written that one in five Americans reported feeling lonely and this was written in 2019 before all of this imposed isolation so now, more than ever, we do need to embrace our community, love our enemies and make friends with all who are doing their very best to be happy. Please trust me when I say, that all of us are doing our best at this very moment and life is worth living, love is worth giving.

I highly recommend this book, especially now, as I trust it will bring you the same light, love and peace it has brought me.

Look at life differently – through acceptance.

Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland

Thank you for reading,

Sarah Butland

Good Food, Bad Diet: The Habits You Need to Ditch Diet Culture, Lose Weight, and Fix Your Relationship with Food Forever by Abby LangerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsI debated giving this book four stars but really, as I feel it’s 4.5 star worthy I rounded up (she

I Read Canadian Day Giveway!

Be sure to check out my I Read Canadian Day giveaway today at

a Rafflecopter giveaway!

The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch

The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book should be a mandatory read for anyone preparing for or going through high school. Not knowing what to expect I was grabbed immediately by the first shower seen and it kept a stranglehold on me all the way through.

While it has been many years since I wandered the hallowed halls of high school, The Sky Blues brought everything right up again, spun it around and spewed it back out at me. Couch makes you think, fall in love with all of the characters and beg for more while also knowing it ended just where it needed to.

Sky is crushing on Ali, and in their senior year Sky decides it’s time to take matters into his own hands and come up with the grandest promposal of the year. With his best friends, Sky drafts a board of possibles, unlikely and LOL Hell No’s and all is going slowly but privately until things take a turn. This story teaches us that not all turns for the worse are actually that bad and how perspective can change a lot of things, if we just take the time to believe so.

The world is more accepting now it seems but there is still a struggle for a lot of kids to fit in, be themselves and be proud of who they are.

Robbie Couch helps pave the way with this well written story of Sky and his classmates as they navigate their way through senior year and beyond. This story is filled with shadows and light, struggles and wins, and all with characters we can all relate to.

The plot, the message, the characters, the situations all weaved together to grab your attention from page one right through to the end!

https://amzn.to/2Yelyxy

Highly recommended!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

View all my reviews

Protected: Through Him I Gained

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

My Unpopular Opinion

Let me start off by saying that I am almost always a rule follower, to the point where it’s boring and prudish but I have also been taking all of the punishments meant for those who break the rules. And it’s a miserable life to lead. Not necessarily live because lately, do you really feel like you’re living?

2020 has been a year unlike any other and while we keep being told to hold onto hope and wait it out there seems to be no real end in sight. I’ve stayed quiet, isolated, didn’t get groceries for months when this all started and basically stayed inside my house to protect myself and others. I’ve donned masks when the verdict was out on those (it really still is) and followed the arrows in the stores even though I really just needed one thing and could have been out quickly and easily.

I’ve stayed quiet. I tend not to voice controversial opinions any more though I still want to be educated, I just don’t want to be called an idiot for questioning something. I want to connect, to debate politely, to reach out to people, to be able to understand theories and opinions and maybe change my own but not to be told I’m a conspiracy theorist or lose friends in the process.

Please understand that I am not taking a definitive side on what I’ll call, for the sake of this post, Cona, as we all know what I’m referring to but it won’t get flagged as easily as using the full word. I am fortunate enough to not have anyone I know directly impacted by Cona though I don’t believe it’s non-existent. I do feel we should no longer live huddled in fear waiting for it to find us and this is why….

And this may be an unpopular opinion but I feel it will make sense to everyone, or most.

People are dying of other things, too.

It’s sad, it is. What makes it so much worse is many people are dying alone for fear of getting or passing along Cona. People die daily of many things including old age, cancer, being hit by a car and we’re all just standing by trusting they know they were loved while we stay in our house and hope we don’t get Cona or, worse, give it.

When we gain some freedom and try to enjoy ourselves, we get ridiculed and judged because we’re doing something that isn’t essential. But what you consider essential, in staying home, reading a book, eating a salad and pretending you’re ok seeing faces through a screen, others may need to get out of their abusive home, see more than their four walls closing in around them, to breath fresh air where they can laugh and smile and, with washed hands, have someone serve them a decent meal.

I wrote a book titled Being Grateful, Being Thankful: Appreciate Everything For Even the Rain Brings Rainbows but if the trails are shut down, if we’re told to wear a mask while we run outside and stay away from those we love we will never enjoy the brilliance of the rain or the rainbow.

This post is certainly not a cry to the masses to revolt or go against what is believed but a post out of exhaustion, desperation and love meant to inspire you to reconsider what is essential and hopefully find a way to enjoy your day without judgement or ridicule from others.

This Christmas as we all try to create new traditions and enjoy the family and friends who are “in our bubble” I am more skeptical by the minute because I have aging family and the idea of holding on until this is over so that “everyone can finally gather” seems more ridiculous by the moment. If everyone is here right now and our lives are RIGHT NOW shouldn’t we be LIVING RIGHT NOW!

We’re told to live for the moment while 2020 has been trying to shift our moment to the future… we can’t live for the future as we never really know when or if that will come. I have lost too many people far too soon and it breaks my heart the idea that they would have died alone if they lived for 2020. So while we are told to live for 2021, the wonderful cure that has even experts worry, people are leaving us and we are sitting at home shedding tears but safe.

But don’t go bungee jumping either as the cord may break mid blissful moment.

Thanks for reading and living,

Sarah Butland

The Hush Sisters by Gerard Collins

This captivating and haunting tale of two sisters caught me from the very beginning. Gerard Collins developed his characters in The Hush Sisters slowly but methodically through secrets of their past and the bindings of their present while giving them, and the reader, chances to hope for their future. He makes it easy to connect and easier to hate the choices they make as they forge their own present and future.

Not for the faint of heart, this is both Sissy’s story and Ava’s, as they look back at their lives together and the people who raised them. Now middle aged and starting over, it is clear that Ava has demon’s inside she’s trying to forget and sell off anything that brings them back while Sissy has some demon’s on the outside she is trying to part with.

With a splash of romance and hope threaded throughout this well weaved story, it does offer something for everything – intrigue, mystery, romance and heartbreak. Just be sure you’re ready for it all as once you start you won’t want to finish!

While some of the foreshadowing was solved quickly, the revealing of each horrific moment was still shocking and heartbreaking.

A Canadian author does it again! Definitely a recommended read.

Be sure to tell me who your favourite sister is and if you think they each made the best decision.

Thanks for reading and supporting Canadian authors!

Sarah Butland