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Saturday, December 19, 2015
Sci fi lovers! Grace Bridges is back
Friday, December 18, 2015
Love's Christmas Past and Present novella review
Two new stand-alone novellas, or bundled for
Print holiday romantic reads from Prism Book Group!
I've read three of the six so far... but here they are, great holiday quick reads for the busy season.
At .99, they're a steal.
Love’s Christmas Past
Prism Book Group
ISBN 978-194310428-4
.99 or bundled print $13.99
Bundled with Christmas Bells, by Jewell
Tweedt, Fragile Blessings by Susan Baganz
From the publisher:
Lady Nola is a woman of
good-standing, but one tragic mistake is set to change her life forever. Rather
than be forced to wed a stranger to hide her transgressions, she flees from
home.
With child, hungry and homeless, Nola wanders the streets of medieval London in search of a Christmas miracle.
With child, hungry and homeless, Nola wanders the streets of medieval London in search of a Christmas miracle.
My review:
This short novella in the Love's
Christmas Past series is packed full. The story of a maiden in medieval England
taken advantage of by a roué and determined not to bring shame on anyone else
is a sweet and thoughtful adventure. Nola, daughter of Lord Langley is at a
marriageable age, and the nearby newly inherited Sir Guy Beauwater could use a
wife. But Nola's secret threatens everything--especially when they meet by
chance and fall in love. Worse, Nola's cousin may ruin everything. A freak
storm, tragedy, and misunderstanding add to mix in this sweet holiday read.
Love’s Christmas Present
Prism Book Group
All’s Fair in Love and Arson
Sharon McGregor
c. Nov 2015
Stand alone novellas or bundled three in one
Bundled with Love Again by Paula Mowery, All’s Fair in Love and Arson by Sharon McGregor
ebook
ISBN 9781943104255
From the publisher:
Bella is back at her
childhood home. When her mother took a fall in the Nuisance Grounds (garbage
dump) and broke her leg, Bella came back to help her and run her shop, Izzie's.
Soon Bella discovers she's also been handed Izzie's role in the town's
Christmas theatre production, a musical version of a well-known mystery that
threatens to become more bizarre each day. A serial arsonist is frightening the
townspeople, a family feud threatens young romance, and intrigue and rumors are
the order of the day. On top of everything, Bella's high school sweetheart
Jake, who dumped her for a cheerleader, is now Chief of Police. Poor Bella!
Christmas in St. Christopher's is not what it used to be.
My review:
Bella comes home to her small town of St.
Christopher to help her mother Izzie at the shop while Izzie heals from a
broken leg. It’s been twelve years and old wounds have festered. But St.
Christopher has some secrets—some good, some not-so-good. One of them is the
new chief of police—Jake—Bella’s high school honey she thought cheated on her
all those years ago. She can’t decide if that’s a good or not-so-good secret.
Another is the amount of nostalgia for a sense of home Bella left behind and
never really felt anywhere else.
Izzie has a few secrets of her own—including a
romance and a task for Bella to force her into the public through a local
theater production role. A definitely not-so-good secret is there’s an arsonist
afoot, and no one knows his or her next target. This is not the St. Christopher
Bella left behind. In some ways, it’s better.
McGregor’s small town family stories pack a lot
into a sweet, easy, quick read that tends to linger with a sense of nostalgia
after the last page. Told in a folksy, third person manner from Bella’s point
of view, the reader is transported to December in St. Christopher, where the
nativity set in the hardware store window reminds Bella and Jake what life is
truly all about. A gentle, multi-generational love story with a bit of mystery
and lots of fun. For those who enjoy a quick and clean read with forgiveness to
go around twice.
Backwards Christmas
Brooke Williams
Stand alone novellas or bundled three
in one
Bundled with Love Again by Paula
Mowery, All’s Fair in Love and Arson by Sharon McGregor
ISBN 978-1943104-29-1
.99 or bundled print $13.99
From the publisher:
Local tour guide Noelle Richards
loves everything Backwards Christmas has to offer in South Pole, Alaska. She
gets wrapped up in the upside down trees, taking presents TO Santa Clause and
all the festivities. Sled dog trainer Chris Furst, on the other hand,
approaches the holiday with nothing but skepticism. When their history bubbles
into the present, their difference of opinion comes to a head. When Chris gets
himself into a dangerous situation in the snow, Noelle and the hope of Christ
are his only hope for redemption.
My review:
Where else could Backwards
Christmas take place other than South Pole, Alaska? The tiny town banks on its
annual backward holiday celebration and tours where groups are sung to by
homeowners and mistletoe is more likely to get stepped on, rather than hung.
Noelle, a wood carver, loves her home and work, even giving the tours her
former boyfriends sneaks into at least every week. His sorrow and anger
remained years after a tragic accident and Noelle is helpless to give him back
the joy and faith they once shared. A kind busy-body pushes them in the right
direction, while a humorous accident and a nearly tragic one send them the rest
of the way. Delightful holiday read.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
A Positive Outlook book review of Renew by Susan Rush
Renew: 7 Days to a more
positive outlook
by Susan Rush
Nonfiction
Hospice heroes
One week’s worth of
stories and meditations from life in a hospice setting
eBook $2.99
Print $5.99
Buy on Amazon
Published October 2015
SusanDRush.com
The author uses her
life story as a hospice social worker to share stories of healing and hope
through our brokenness. Each of seven stories center around an episode of
self-challenge through visiting with patients, from being burned out to truly
looking at yourself, to being brave or finding humor. Each chapter starts with
an inspiring quote and ends with a reflection, a meditation, questions for
self-discovery, and a prayer.
Renew is both a lovely
and hard-hitting challenge of a short book. For those who want to know how to
take a look around yourself and put your own life in perspective, and then
focus outward and explore the possibilities of living in faith. One week will
show readers a new path.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Holiday Special in historical romance ebook fwuthor interview
For a limited time, a holiday special for
historical romance lovers!
From the Publisher:
Four young women each brave
challenges at the dawn of the 20th century. Will they overcome their hardships
and find love?
Three Rings for Alice by Lisa Lickel
Alice Smith is a thoroughly modern young woman at the brink of the twentieth century. She may be an orphan, but she enjoys the companionship of close friends who all look toward the future. When they begin pairing off, Alice feels lonely. In her job as the Milwaukee Mayor’s secretary, she keeps long hours at City Hall, filing, copying correspondence, and answering the new telephone system, the first without a switchboard. When an intriguing-sounding man makes an accidental call to the mayor’s office, they strike up a companionship. Alice tells herself she doesn’t miss him when his random calls stop and she begins a no-nonsense courtship with a friend. Until he calls again.
Three Rings for Alice by Lisa Lickel
Alice Smith is a thoroughly modern young woman at the brink of the twentieth century. She may be an orphan, but she enjoys the companionship of close friends who all look toward the future. When they begin pairing off, Alice feels lonely. In her job as the Milwaukee Mayor’s secretary, she keeps long hours at City Hall, filing, copying correspondence, and answering the new telephone system, the first without a switchboard. When an intriguing-sounding man makes an accidental call to the mayor’s office, they strike up a companionship. Alice tells herself she doesn’t miss him when his random calls stop and she begins a no-nonsense courtship with a friend. Until he calls again.
Forgiven by Paula Mowery
Henry isn’t interested in working in the family business. He has his own aspirations. And his mother is determined to make sure he weds a woman he doesn’t love.
Jessie wants to build a life for herself and her sister that is more than the life her father dealt her when he abandoned them.
When Henry and Jessie meet, it seems to be the classic love at first sight until a shocking revelation tears them apart.
The Pocket Watch by Kathleen Rouser
Isabel Jones, an orphan, receives a
ruby ring left by the mother she never knew and wants more than ever to find
her roots. When a young physician, Daniel Harper, rescues her from an oncoming
automobile and she finds his pocket watch in a puddle, her circumstances take a
turn. She begins to consider what life outside the orphanage could be like.
Daniel’s heart has been broken before and the attractive young lady who finds
his treasured timepiece wouldn’t be deemed suitable by his social climbing
parents.
When Isabel and Daniel work side by side, caring for the orphanage children during an influenza epidemic, she becomes gravely ill. Compelled to redeem the time by helping her find the past, Daniel finds a buried truth, connected to the ruby ring, which creates an unbridgeable chasm between them. Where will they find hope in a hopeless situation?
Flames of Hope by Teena Stewart
Young San Francisco police officer Gideon Light is smitten the moment he sees Lily McMinn rolling down the awnings on her father’s mercantile. Lovely, petite, and spunky, Lily had to grow up quickly after her mother passed away. She not only oversees the welfare of two younger siblings, she also helps run her father’s business.
Gideon and Lily are immediately attracted to each other and soon become good friends. It doesn’t take long before Lily realizes her feelings for Gideon have changed to something far deeper. He secretly harbors dreams of advancing in the force to earn a substantial enough income to make Lily his wife.
Before either has a chance to pursue each other, however, an earthquake of unthinkable magnitude shatters their world. With a raging fire fast in its wake, tragedy and triumph await as Gideon, Lily, and her family flee for their lives with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Set during the time of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, this tale of great loss, incredible human courage, and sweet romance will inspire and warm your heart.
Print - $13.99
Ebook on sale in December - .99
ISBN – 978-1940099250
November 2013
Four-in-one historical romance
novellas
Lisa Lickel, Paula Mowery, Kathleen
Rouser, Teena Stewart
Brief interviews with each author:
Kathy
What about Detroit’s history
influenced your story, The Pocket Watch?
I knew someone who’d grown up in a
Catholic orphanage in Detroit many years ago. I wondered if there were similar
Protestant ministries in the city at an earlier time and discovered the Protestant
Orphan Asylum of Detroit. I had been researching the Crittenton Mission, a home
for unwed mothers, for another story, but wondered about what it would be like
for a child left in and growing up at an orphanage.
How did you use your setting, Kathy?
Did you make your story fit facts, or did you use facts you uncovered to
create your story and guide your characters?
I mostly tried to make my story fit
the facts, doing my best to find as much as I could about the streets, the
homes, and the stores, some which have names that are familiar even today.
Also, I remember my mom talking about riding on the streetcars, a trolley type
of transportation, and found that it existed many years before her time. I
hoped to create as realistic a backdrop as possible.
There had been some flu outbreaks in
the city in other years. Though there wasn’t an epidemic reported at that exact
time, I felt it was a plausible reason for quarantine conditions at the
orphanage.
How did you come up with the idea of making the pocket watch a key part of your story?
There’s something I’ve always found intriguing and elegant about the use of a pocket watch. The watch, a gift from the Daniel’s father, is something which a doctor would be hard pressed to live without. The lost object is like a treasure to an orphan like Isabel and she wants to return it to the owner. The timepiece, like time itself, becomes integral to bridging Daniel’s past to his future. This also fits with the focus of a new year and indeed, the new century coming.
Kathy, what did you enjoy most when writing your tale?
That’s a tough one. I enjoyed digging up books containing old photos of Detroit, learning a little more of the history of the city which I grew up so near and where I spent much time. It was nice to see its past vitality and know there’s hope for its future as well.
I also enjoyed watching my characters grow and adding humor with the cantankerous poodle, Taffy. It was hard to say “good-bye” to Isabel and Daniel!
Paula
How did you go about finding
historical facts about Knoxville’s history for your story, Forgiven?
My mom and I took a little trip to
an archive section of the library that is in downtown Knoxville. We had a fun
time exploring there. I found directories for exactly what business was at what
spot on the city streets. Many of the building numbers and establishment names
used in Forgiven were really those listed for that time in the 1900s.
Of course, another part of the
story, the shoot-out, came from some ancestry probing done by my father. The
hero and heroine are based upon my paternal grandparents.
Where did your story meld with the
setting, Paula, to make Knoxville the unique influence on your characters?
Knoxville is the place the hero and
heroine "find" each other. My grandparents actually lived in a house
near downtown Knoxville.
Your story Forgiven is based on
a true story. Who were the people in the real life story and how did you learn
about the tale?
My father had done some ancestry
digging and found the newspaper account of a shoot-out between his father and
uncles and some business colleagues. My paternal grandfather, Henry, survived
the gun battle and went on to marry my grandmother, Jessie Lee. I have never
heard the story of how they got together. That's where I took some fiction
writer's license.
What takeaway would you like readers
to get from Forgiven?
Forgiveness is something we must
learn to extend just as God has so willingly extended it to us.
Lisa
What gave
you the idea for making the telephone a part of your story in Three
Rings for Alice?
I was
researching inventions around the turn of the twentieth century for a blog I
used to write for—Favorite Pastimes—and learned more about the telephone and
switchboards and how technology was changing. It also happened to be about the
time of the 100th anniversary for the Milwaukee City Hall, and when I learned
that this building was one of the first to feature direct dialing, I was able
to incorporate that aspect into the story.
Why did
you choose Milwaukee for the location?
It’s only
thirty miles from where I live—I grew up south of there, and now live north of
there. I love the county history museum, which is also nearby the city hall.
Teena
Teena, what influenced your choice
to set your story, Flames of Hope, in San Francisco?
We lived in the Bay area of
California for a while and I learned about the great earthquake and fire. When
I was invited to write a story for the book the stipulation was for it to be a romance
set at the turn of the century and in a city, so it was a natural choice for
me.
When you devised your story, was it
more around the facts, or did you have your story in mind before you researched
the events of the era, and what choices did you employ to guide your
characters? All I knew was that I wanted a
romance to take place in San Francisco during the earthquake. I had no story
line in mind and no idea of characters. I brainstormed who those characters
might be and why they would know each other. I came up with the idea of a
shop girl. Who would she know? Locals. Who could be a local she is drawn
to and see on a regular basis--a young policeman. I felt that if there was
already a spark between them, then putting them in danger would be a catalyst
for drawing them closer together and would make for an exciting story.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Children's book review of Sassy Pants the pig
Sassy Pants learns about Strange
Creatures, third in the series
By Carol Brown
November 2015
Summer Island Press, Alaska
ISBN 978-0996495356
Children’s lit
Price paperback $11.99
buy from Amazon
From the Publisher:
Strange creatures are popping up all over the place on
Farmer White's farm! What is a little pig supposed to do? Does she have to be
polite? Should she just ignore them? And what if they're scary? How can you
tell the difference between dangerous, or just different? That's what Sassy
Pants has to learn when she wanders off by herself in places she isn't supposed
to. But sometimes she learns the easy way, and sometimes the hard way. Which
one will it be this time? And will she learn what's right in time to stay safe?
Follow along with Sassy Pants and Friends, as they try to figure things out.
My review:
Delightful addition to the Sassy Pants middle
grade readers. Sassy Pants is a little pig, a runt raised by the farm family
and then returned to the pigpen where she has a lot to learn. In this tale,
Sassy Pants learns from Old Clyde the horse that a strange new creature has
come to Farmer White’s farm. He’s a llama with a big long name, but Sassy Pants
calls him Mister One. None of the other animals want to disturb Mister One with
his terrible nightmares and strange spitting ways, but Sassy Pants is
determined to help the llama. She learns how when another strange creature
shows up—an English bulldog and his captain, come for a visit. While none of
the other animals want to even get close to the stinky bulldog, Sassy Pants
persists and learns a valuable lesson about not just getting along, but helping
each other even when we make mistakes.
Lovingly crafted illustrations and humor will
add to the enjoyment of the these stories told by Sassy Pants herself.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Carole Brown and Bat Crazy!
About the Book:
Red-eyed Monster Bats that
attack humans?
Denton doesn’t think so and
Alex hopes not, but who are they to quibble with the local gossip?
Transmission problems and a
blown tire land Denton and Alex Davies right in the middle of a dilapidated,
unfriendly town that’s welcoming no strangers, least of all nosy ones with a
bent toward solving mysteries.
But with support from the
town detective--an admirer of the Davies--and their own tenacious
personalities, Denton and Alex aren’t easily scared off. Not when warnings in
the form of painted bats show up on the porch of their rented cabin, not when
the mayor threatens to run them out of town and not even when Denton finds the
bones . . .
An ancient story, a bit of a
map, a lost jewel and even a bat clan serve to provide the Davies and their
sidekick, Taffy, the dog, their hardest case so far.
Kindle: $2.99
Print: $11.99
Buy the book here
Carole, tell us what you love about
this new book.
I love Denton and Alex
Davies, their personalities and their small squabbles and real love for each
other. Relationships have to be worked at to survive and Denton and Alex,
although they strongly disagree on a variety of subjects, work at theirs.
There’s also the fact that
the first five months of this year, saw us facing five deaths. It was a
particularly hard time for me when I couldn’t focus on writing. BUT God and my
hubby helped me through it and eventually I was inspired once again to write.
It was with a special satisfaction that
I was able to write “The End.”
Introduce us to a sidekick
character.
I suppose one that I was
drawn to was my detective: Tomas Brody. It was his first real job, an easy one,
he thought when he accepted it. He’s young, inexperienced but smart enough to
accept help when needed. I loved being able to create him as a sympathetic law
officer who admires the Davies and who is not afraid to seek the help he knows
they can give.
What did you learn while
writing this book (era, something to do w/the mystery, etc.)
I always enjoy research, so
it wasn’t entirely a chore to learn more about bats. Yes, the truth is, I’ve
never been a big fan of them. But after studying them, I’ve learned that they
are fairly harmless and beneficial to the environment. That boosts their value
in my eyes.
I also wavered for quite
awhile on which bat specie to use. Eventually, I went for a large one from
Australia (that is stolen from a local zoo in the book) as an interesting
tidbit in the book. On the interviews I’ve done so far, I hoped I’ve convinced
several that they have no need to fear from the bats in BAT CRAZY!
What’s next, Carole?
The third book in this series
should release sometime in 2016. It’s called DAFFY’S DUCK and is set in
Colorado in the ski country. I’m so excited about this book because a Down’s
Syndrome woman plays a big part in the plot. Blackmail, ducks, art and skiing
are all involved to make it another exciting mystery.
About the Author:
Brown not only has her award
winning (Winner of the 2015 Christian Small Publisher Award in General Fiction,
nominated for an Epic Award, RWA International Digital Awards finalist in
Inspiration, Laurel Award finalist, Selah finalist; Genesis semi-finalist)
debut novel, The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman, available for purchase
now, but a companion book called West Virginia Scrapbook: From the Life of
Caralynne Hayman, filled with tidbits of information about West Virginia.
A fun, lighthearted mystery
series began with the first book: Hog Insane, introducing Denton and
Alex Davies and now her second book in this series, Bat Crazy. Her WWII
romantic suspense Spies series began with With Music In Their Hearts,
featuring the first of three red-headed sisters, three spies, and three
stories.
Now, releasing November,
2015, is the first book in a new series: The Appleton, WV Romantic Mysteries,
called Sabotaged Christmas.
Besides being a member and
active participant of many writing groups, Carole Brown enjoys mentoring
beginning writers. She loves to weave suspense and tough topics into her books,
along with a touch of romance and whimsy, and is always on the lookout for
outstanding titles and catchy ideas. She and her husband reside in SE Ohio but
have ministered and counseled nationally and internationally. Together, they
enjoy their grandsons, traveling, gardening, good food, the simple life, and
did she mention their grandsons?
Catch up with Carole:
Personal blog: http://sunnebnkwrtr.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/browncarole212
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sunnywrtr/boards/
Stitches in Time: http://stitchesthrutime.blogspot.com/
Barn Door Book Loft: http://www.barndoorbookloft.net/
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
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