Inspy romance Flowers Can Be Fatal 12

Holly in December, Flowers can be fatal #12

Clare Revell

Pelican Ventures LLC, November 2016

Inspirational romantic novella

$3.99 Ebook

Also available on Audible

Buy on Amazon

Barnes and Noble

About the Book

She's "Hopeless." When Hope ran away from home at seventeen it was just the start of a downward spiral that led to mistakes that have plagued her since. Now accused of a crime, she's lost her job and housing. With a young daughter to care for, she finds a place at a church-run shelter. Nick Slater is a new assistant pastor at Headley Cross Baptist. His focus should be on his job and volunteering at the shelter, but when the same woman keeps crossing his path, he knows God has orchestrated their meetings and resolves to help her, no matter what it takes. But even while scents of holly and fresh-baked pies fill the air with Christmas joy, and Nick finds himself falling in love with Hope and her little girl, the dark stain of Hope's past threatens to affect Nick's career. Should he ignore the urge to save his reputation, or is God teaching him a Heavenly lesson? 

My review

This twelfth book in the gently linked Flowers Can Be Fatal series of inspirational romantic novellas opens on a dramatic note. Social worker Hope Hargitay is being sent home after a blistering accusation of wrong-doing blows up in her face. She can’t even defend herself, and after five years’ of service, is fired. Not only let go, she and her daughter are tossed out of the apartment that came with the ill-paying job. Now what? Her last resort is moving into a homeless shelter in exchange for work.

A new tenant in a run-down apartment on the seedy side of town, Assistant Pastor Nick Slater helps a young woman move her bags down several flights of stairs. He’s never had time to introduce himself and is startled to meet her again during his volunteer time at the nearby shelter. This time she’s again in desperate need of being rescued and Nick is pulled willingly into her story. Holly has an idea of how and why she’s being victimized but is scared senseless over telling the truth. Already on probation as a pastor, Nick is repeatedly warned by older church members to maintain decorum. Nick understands, but how can he prove his faith practice if he’s told to keep his distance from the very people who need his help? God loves the downtrodden and the redeemed too, and Nick is determined to make sure everyone keeps past sins where they belong—firmly in the past—and that justice and mercy go both ways.

Revell’s series shares a few characters and intertwines storylines gently without needing to be read in any particular order. The stories are laden with contemporary issues and lovingly told through both hero and heroine’s voices. Each is lovingly and well told. I listened to the audio version and enjoyed the Brit-speak. Those who love short intense romances will enjoy Revell’s work.

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins. Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.
She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars. She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell

Inspy romance Flowers Can Be Fatal 11

Mums in November, Flowers can be fatal #11

Clare Revell

Pelican Ventures LLC, October 2016

Inspirational romantic novella, 127 pp

$3.99 Ebook

Also available on Audible

Buy on Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Publisher

About the Book

Running into Amber Neville after twenty years wasn’t on Dr. Jackson Parker’s list of things to do. Amber had been head girl to his head boy, and from what he remembers, she was British, stuck up and bossy...But the red-haired beauty she’s grown into leaves him stunned.Newly returned from a job in Canada, Amber remembers Jackson as a brash and rude American--not at all the even-tempered, handsome doctor he's turned out to be. But she can’t get involved, not with the massive burden she bears--a burden that has to remain hidden at all costs.As secrets are revealed, Amber’s life is thrown into danger. As the flowers fade, so does her chance of survival. But Jackson has other plans. After all, doctors are meant to save lives, no matter the cost.

My review

After reading several stories in the series and wondering about the American who seems to be everywhere, saving people and generally being part of the community, we finally get to his story. It’s worth the wait, readers! Jackson Parker is full of surprises. Having been raised as the son of a foreign diplomat, he had a lot to overcome and to prove to his classmates. Although smart, he tended to act up and act out in all the wrong ways. The girl he wanted most to approach back in their school days, Amber Neville, seemed out of reach…and then Jackson and his family moved again.

The two of them receive the surprise of a lifetime when Amber turns up in the small village Jackson returned to after getting his medical education and license. She’s been a nanny to a high-powered family and is looking for another job in this tucked-away place. Jackson wastes no time in letting Amber know that now he’s grown up he’s not repeating his past and letting her get away without even getting to know her. Amber is on edge, and Jackson wants to help her. When a dangerous allergy gives him the opportunity to come to her rescue, Amber’s heart is lost. Jackson unwittingly opens an ugly can of worms when he asks his cop brother to do a background check. Unsure what to believe and how to help, Jackson continues to pry until Amber can’t hide any longer. By then it might be too late for both of them.

Lots of twists and turns make this sweet little suspense a page-turner. Told from both points of view I was often shaking my finger at the mean cops and the horrifying situation these poor people were involved with. Those who love clean romantic suspense will love this story.

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins. Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.
She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars. She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell

Inspy romance Flowers Can Be Fatal 9

Forget-Me-Nots in September, Flowers can be fatal #9

Clare Revel

Pelican Ventures LLC, August, 2016

Inspirational romantic novella

$3.99 Ebook

Also available on Audible

Buy on Amazon

Barnes and Noble

About the Book

On his third tour of duty in Afghanistan Lt. Col. Bev King signs up for the parcel service. He likes the contact from home, appreciates the generosity and thoughtfulness of his benefactor, and is intrigued by this woman who lives in the same town as his grandmother. Jude Travis loves sending care packages to servicemen and is thrilled when "her squaddie" replies. A rapid letter exchange follows, and when he comes home on R&R they meet. But Jude is being stalked, and Bev might just get snagged in the crossfire. Will this whirlwind romance cause repercussions? Could coming home be more dangerous for Bev than staying in a combat zone?

My review

I enjoy Revell’s Flowers Can Be Fatal series. These gently linked stories that mention characters in other books and sometimes involve them are all stand-alone romances with a bit of bite. In this story, Jude Travis has a special affinity for soldiers since members of her family have also been in service. She supports Her Majesty’s troops overseas through letters and care packages. She owns her own bakery and spends her spare time keeping up with her business. She’s on the lonely side, but doesn’t have much time or interest in a social life. She also has a sneaking suspicion someone from her past is showing up at all times in all sorts of crazy places, but she can’t prove this person means her harm. When it becomes obvious she’s in danger, she does what she can to protect her new love interest, the soldier she’s been writing to on leave at home, Bev, and her heart.

The recipient of her latest personalized and warm-hearted care packages and letters, Bev King finds himself attracted to this writer like no one else When he’s fortunate enough to meet her, it’s pretty much lifelong love at first sight. Jude is an enigma, attempting to be confident and independent, yet facing a nameless fear she won’t share. When the stakes are raised and Bev is pulled into her trauma, potential repercussions abound. Protecting Jude could be more dangerous than active duty.

Told through interchanging viewpoints, Forget-me-nots is a compelling, short drama of inspirational romance and suspense. I listened to the audible version and enjoyed hearing the British nuances that don’t look the same on a printed page.

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins. Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.
She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars. She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell

Val Edwards and a song of praise

Heavenly Vitamins by Val Edwards

Edwards Family Publishing, September 2019

75 pp

$5.99 Ebook

$12.00 paperback

Buy on Amazon  US

Amazon UK 

About the Book

Jesus is our Living Word encouraging us by His Holy Spirit with His Words of LIFE. So here are new songs of affirmation and declaration for equipping us all to be saints in Light. Restorative Spiritual Songs are direct from the Word. They will be tonic with good medicine for the spirit, body, mind and soul that give voice to our Heavenly Father’s Love and Care for us all. An alphabet of simple songs will help us meditate on and remember Our Heavenly Father’s Word with Flowing Grace. Singing them out will cause these truths to positively dwell deep in our hearts and spirits. Offerings of Praise and Thanks to God can be heartily sung round. We may swim, march, dance, prayer walk or simply be, as we sing them heartily. They will do us good and build us up as we sing out and give voice to these Heavenly Vitamins, and share them with each other too.

My review:

This precious book is an intimate look at a relationship among soulmates; between heaven and earth. Filled with loving photographs taken by the author and songs of devotion, Heavenly Vitamins is an alphabet of interactive praise meant to fortify and build up the reader. For the musically inclined, songs are set up in formatted notes, accompanied by Scripture and lovely images. Simple tunes, such as “Praise shall continually be in my mouth, Psalm thirty-four verse one” both offer our adoration and help us memorize verses. Images of creation in seasons, fruit, blossom, wildlife, sunsets, all meld into hallelujah.

Those who enjoy music and photos in a peanut-size coffee table book will love Heavenly Vitamins.

About the Author:

The late Val Edwards of Britain’s South Coast had a degree in molecular sciences. She and her husband Jim have four children and a grandchild.

I am Bocha Posh

I am a Bacha Posh: My Life as a Woman Living as a Man in Afghanistan

Ukmina Manoori

Skyhorse Publishing, Oct, 2014

176 pp

$9.99 Ebook

$11.99 Print

$19.99 Hardcover

Buy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 

About the Book

"You will be a son, my daughter." With these stunning words Ukmina learned that she was to spend her childhood as a boy.

In Afghanistan there is a widespread practice of girls dressing as boys to play the role of a son. These children are called bacha posh: literally "girls dressed as boys." This practice offers families the freedom to allow their child to shop and work—and in some cases, it saves them from the disgrace of not having a male heir. But in adolescence, religion restores the natural law. The girls must marry, give birth, and give up their freedom.

Ukmina decided to confront social and family pressure and keep her menswear. This brave choice paved the way for an extraordinary destiny: she wages war against the Soviets, assists the mujaheddin and ultimately commands the respect of all whom she encounters. She eventually becomes one of the elected council members of her province.

But freedom always has a price. For "Ukmina warrior" that price was her life as a woman. This is a stunning and brave memoir about a little known practice that will challenge your perceptions about gender and the courage it takes to live your life to the fullest.

My Review

I am a Bacha Posh is memoir with necessary autobiographical elements. It is not fiction and thus will not have fictional elements of rising and falling tension. Manoori shares her life, the only life she knows, of growing up in a small rural village in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Russian aggression, US intervention, and the rise of the Taliban are experienced through the eyes of a child and young adult who wonders what they ever did to the government or the Russians to deserve the bombing and destruction of their way of life.

As Ukmina saw the disparity in the way women and children were, by custom and religion, treated, she chose, perhaps first in innocence but later in growing conscience, to lead a revolt. Manoori lives out the strange custom of allowing a daughter to dress and act like a boy until puberty to allow the child freedom to travel and work to support the family, and even attend school. When puberty comes, Manoori isn’t ready or willing to give up the freedoms allowed a boy in a Muslim community. Although everyone around her knew she was a woman, she lived a warrior life, taking on the two-faced facets of ethnic religion and politics and forcing the troubled ideologies into the light.

I don’t know that the story makes me rethink gender. Manoori is not a lesbian, or even sexual, self-identifies as a woman, and not transgender. She’s more of an Amazon, a woman unafraid to be a frontrunner in defiance of ridiculous false male dominance. Manoori saw how traditional male and female roles didn’t even pretend to work in a society where men were supposed to take care of their family and women were supposed to be homemakers. When a husband has daughters who are not allowed to be out unescorted in public and traditionally not allowed to work or get an education, he can arbitrarily circumvent society by changing the “norm” and treat a daughter as a son. Manoori learned that her culture did not practice the laws it passed, such as women had the right to vote since the 1960s, and decided to help women—everyone—create a safe and relevant environment in her beloved country.

Told in a haunted voice from her gut, Manoori’s tale is a plea both for understanding and acceptance. It’s a call to action to rise above uncertainty and injustice and to live true.

New Biblical fiction from Barbara Britton

Heavenly Lights: Noah’s Journey

Barbara M Britton

Pelican Book Group

Released February 2020

Biblical fiction

$5.99 eBook

$15.99 Print

210 pp

Buy on Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

Publisher site 

About the Book

Fiction from Joshua 5-8; the daughters of Zelophehad go forth with God into the book of Joshua.

Noah bat Zelophehad might have broken tradition by being able to inherit her father’s land, but her heart’s desire is to have the finest herds in all of Israel, something an orphaned and unmarried woman has never achieved.

Jeremiah ben Abishua cannot speak, nor hear. God has made his thoughts captive to his mind. But he can communicate with one shepherdess, a woman who sees his skill with animals and treats him like a man worthy of respect.

When their people disobey God and incur his wrath, Noah and Jeremiah must overcome tragedy in order to change perceptions in the tribes of Israel. Will their kinship desire to care for one another and the four-legged creatures God has placed in their care, be able to flourish in a land filled with enemies of the One True God?

God gave Noah bat Zelophehad four sisters, a way with four-legged creatures, and a strong spirit. She will need all three gifts to thrive in the Promised Land of God and find love with a special shepherd.

Coming in April 2020: Claiming Canaan: Milcah’s Journey

My Review

The second installment of Britton’s well-researched and imaginative biblical fiction series is a delight. The author focuses on the little-told story of the daughters of Zelophehad who were bold enough to claim their rightful inheritance in the Promised Land after Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt.

Noah is specially gifted in animal husbandry and the story opens upon her assisting in a difficult birth and devising an innovative therapeutic approach to encouraging the offspring to thrive—a talent that will come in handy in the future. Although her clan of five women has been recognized in the world of men, it’s still an unusual and prejudicial struggling community of Israelites navigating and battling to follow God in an alien land and culture. The women must continually stay alert to protect their reputations and future. If the feisty Noah has any weak spot it’s for her fellow shepherd, the deaf-mute Jeremiah, strong and faithful and utterly devoted to her and their work. Neither dares entertain more than a passing fancy that they could join their lives; in fact, Noah is so dedicated to her work she would rather not marry anyone if it means she might not be able to care for her beloved herds.

Jeremiah knows he has to prove himself a man in the eyes of his clan before he can dream of marrying. Even if it means risking his life in battle…as well as with his crafty brothers.

Heavenly Lights is the story of Noah and Jeremiah’s devotion to the God who created the earth and all the stars of the sky; the God who listens and cares for His people and provides not only our needs but the desires of our hearts. Told through both Noah and Jeremiah’s viewpoints, readers of biblical fiction will appreciate Britton’s detail and faithful retelling of the story of these deserving women.

About the Author

Barbara M. Britton was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, but currently lives in Wisconsin and loves the snow—when it accumulates under three inches. She writes romantic adventures for teens and adults. Barb has a nutrition degree from Baylor University but loves to dip healthy strawberries in chocolate. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Wisconsin Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. You can visit Barb online at www. barbarambritton.com or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Childrens Book Review of Fly Fly Away

Fly, Fly Again

By Katie Jaffe and Jennifer Lawson

32 pp

Children’s book

See an interview with the author here

Greenleaf Press, January 2020

Ebook $7.99

Print $15.95

Part of the proceeds go to UNICEF and Buzz Aldrin Ventures

Buy on

Amazon

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Google Books

About the Book

Fly, Fly Again is a clever and charming story about Jenny, a child who dreams of flying. After years of tinkering in makeshift laboratories and studying the mechanics of flight with her pet Hawk, Jenny builds a plane—only to crash into the yard of her skateboarding neighbor, Jude, and his pet cheetah. Working with Jude, Jenny successfully learns how to control and fly her plane. This unique story includes lessons about problem solving, teamwork, and determination as well as family-friendly information about the basics of aeronautical engineering like lift, drift, and more!

My Review

This children’s picture book has a charming rhyme scheme to introduce concepts of flight in a fanciful manner. Jenny acts on her interest in flight by observing nature, learning facts, and teaming up with her friend to design and create a flying machine. The authors have used simple, memorable language and cooperative characters to promote the lessons described above. The illustrations are bright, colorful, and attractive and show the story along with the words.

Jenny watches a hawk to see how natural flight works in birds, and then experiments with craft materials and toys to devise a flying machine. As she continues to figure out what makes flight work, she “falls” into her neighbor boy Jude’s yard. Jude shares her interest and together they work on a controlled flight and even bigger dreams of space.

Charmingly illustrated with exotic animal friends, Fly, Fly Again is a good story to introduce basic flight vocabulary and teach young children the importance of dreaming big, teamwork, and persistence.

About the authors

Katie Jaffe: As Creative Director and Design Consultant of Aviation for Spectre Air Capital, Katie has aided in the design of several high profile aircraft.  Currently, she is leading the marketing and design effort of an overseas airline. She also has a passion for children's causes, and has committed herself to helping several charities for children around the world.  She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and three children.  

Jennifer Lawson: Lifelong educator and advocate of the Childrens Literacy Program, Jennifer seeks to bring knowledge to students through creative curriculum and technology on a global level.  As Owner and President of Decision Tree she is currently endeavoring to teach using technologically advanced solutions that excite today's students. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.

Uncharted Promises by Keely Brooke Keith

Uncharted Promises, book 8 in the Uncharted series

Keely Brooke Keith

January 1, 2020

191 pages

Edenbrooke Press

Ebook $4.99

Print $13.95

Buy on Amazon 

Barnes and Noble - coming

About the Book

Sybil Roberts uses the warmth of delicious meals to lift the spirits of road-weary travelers at The Inn at Falls Creek. Her life at the inn would be perfect if she could just get her brothers and mother to move back home.

And if she could see Isaac Owens again.

He visited the inn once when he interviewed for the farm manager job, and she’s dreamed of his return to Falls Creek ever since.

Isaac Owens knows how to run a farm. His family might not have faith in him, but if he succeeds at Falls Creek, he’ll prove them wrong. He arrives at the inn thinking the job is his, but the inn’s senile owner offered the position to another man too. Isaac must spend the winter competing if he wants to win the job… and Sybil’s heart.

It will take more than warm meals on cold nights for Sybil and Isaac to find love while working at the isolated inn.

My Review

The more readers immerse themselves in Keith’s near future world, the more at home we feel. Returning to Falls Creek, not quite a community but more than a crossroads, is a comfortable place to be, even if the residents and guests sometimes cross over the lines between friend and foe. A parent sadly slipping further into dementia causes an uproar when he makes an apparent mistake in offering the same farm managerial position to two different people. This confusing order results in overriding his oldest daughter’s authority in running the family inn, and his youngest daughter Sybil’s future happiness, not to mention the young man in question, Isaac’s, sense of self-worth and desire to test his ability to make and stick to a plan for the future.

Guests both purposefully visionary and with criminal intent come and go to the inn at Falls Creek. One decision by the elders of the Land to declare the resident families a village and accept an overseer, a stranger to the area who will serve as leader and pastor, pushes many to face their anxieties as they defend their way of life.

Keith’s latest addition to her series explores the hopes and fears of the family of innkeepers in the Land; from the patriarch who must pass along the inheritance and break with tradition, to his youngest daughter who must grow out of her idyllic schemes to force everyone in her life to live up to her childish memories of perfect happiness. When Isaac must leave to attend to a family matter, he promises to return. But Sybil only knows that those who leave Falls Creek rarely return.

Told in alternating personal viewpoints between Sybil and Isaac, Uncharted Promises reunites old friends and new in this slice of life of people struggling to create and maintain a perfect, peaceable society. Fans of the series, and those who like a blend of near-future romantic inspirational tales with a twist will enjoy Uncharted Promises.

About the Author

Keely Brooke Keith writes inspirational frontier-style fiction with a futuristic twist, including The Land Uncharted (Shelf Unbound Notable Romance 2015) and Aboard Providence (2017 INSPY Awards Longlist).

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Keely was a tree-climbing, baseball-loving 80s kid. She grew up in a family who moved often, which fueled her dreams of faraway lands. When she isn’t writing, Keely enjoys teaching home school lessons and playing bass guitar. Keely, her husband, and their daughter live on a hilltop south of Nashville, Tennessee.

Grace stories and a novella from Dan Burns

Grace by Dan Burns

Chicago Arts Press, October 2019

195 pp

Available in 4 formats:

Ebook, paperback, harcover, and audible

Buy from the author 

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

About the Book

“We’re all flawed and confronted daily with sometimes slight but often apparently insurmountable challenges. But if we dig deep, what we unearth from the depths of our souls, if we’re lucky, can allow us to overcome and carry on to live another day with an untortured heart.”

This is the sentiment Dan Burns explores in his exciting new collection. Five stories and a novella highlight Burns’s range as a storyteller and his ability to see life and all its emotions through a unique lens. This collection features his most personal and insightful stories to date.

Redemption—In a quiet Montana town, an aging writer and his nephew are forced to weave the past and the present into a future of more significant meaning.

The Plight of Maximus Octavius Reinhold—In the new story featuring private investigator Sebastian Drake (from the novel A Fine Line), the local patrons of a rural Wisconsin town test Drake’s resolve as he stares into the barrel of a .44 Magnum revolver.

Hardwired—A dying man contemplates the end of his life while hoping to pass along a secret legacy to his family.

Adrift at Sea—To fuel his creative desires, a seabound journeyman leaves behind the anchor of distraction in pursuit of a natural world.

The Final Countdown—In the year 2110, the Earth struggles to survive, ravaged by overpopulation and greed. Food is scarce, and the youth-run government has no choice but to implement a plan devised decades earlier: deport the elderly population to a remote outpost—on the moon.

Grace: A Novella—A story of impaired love, betrayal, and redemption as realized by characters who experience life through the perception of liquor-bottle glasses. Life is never what it seems. Everyone has secrets. The question is whether the skeleton key of alcohol will open the closet door and let out the hidden truths.

The collection includes notes about the thoughts, ideas, and inspiration behind the stories, offering an exclusive behind-the-scenes perspective of the author’s writing process, along with twenty-six illustrations by artist Kelly Maryanski.

Enjoy the trailer

My review

Burns’s new collection of stories is a pleasant and poignant read, with a delightful flow from peaceful and magnanimity to evocative to noir. My favorite story, Final Countdown, channels our mutually admired author, Ray Bradbury. Simple pencil drawings add an extra level of revelation in each story.

Beginning with a past meets present tale set on a Montana ranch, family relationships tying youth and age, love and lust, is the thread woven throughout the book.

Burns proves his versatility with genre, moving adeptly along western, gunslinger, detective noir, old man and the sea-type plots, futuristic, and his specialty of stage writing with ease. The first story features a tenderness of two-way grace when a lonely old man gets a surprise visit from his nephew in need. By the time we get to the last short story before we reach the centerpiece, the novella of the title, we have traversed through time and geography to a future glut of septuagenarians. In Grace: a novella, the reader is drawn back around to reconsider family through the eyes of a bitter wife and her sometimes humorous attempt to deal with her perceived problems.

The cover is an intriguing tumble of letters over the ghostly image of hands and face reaching out, or perhaps breaking through. Readers who enjoy shorter slices of story dealing with the challenges of family secrets, family love and war, and family adrift, will enjoy this book.

 

About the Author

Dan Burns's new story collection is Grace: Stories and a Novella. He is the author of the novels A Fine Line and Recalled to Life and the short story collection No Turning Back: Stories. He is also an award-winning writer of stories for the screen and stage. He resides with his family in Illinois and enjoys spending time in Wisconsin and Montana, where he stalks endless rivers in pursuit of trout and a career as a fly fisherman. www.danburnsauthor.com

Highland Romance with Jennifer Trethewey

Saving the Scot

Book 4 of the Highlanders of Balfourss historical romance series

Jennifer Trethewey

Entangled books

March, 2019

$3.99 ebook

$18.99 print

$14.99 Audio

Buy on Amazon 

Buy on Barnes and Noble

Goodreads 

About the Book:

Louisa Robertson’s father is furious when he finds her acting on stage. Now, she’s being shipped off to America to marry some stranger her father thinks will bring out the “lady” in her. Luckily, Louisa’s maid agrees to switch places with her! Her maid will marry the American and get the wealthy lifestyle she’s always wanted, and Louisa can do whatever she damn well pleases––for the first time in her life.

Highlander Ian Sinclair needs an army commission, and the only way he can get one is to safely deliver the general’s Daughter-from-Hell to her intended in America. Easy, right? It would be if the lady’s companion Louisa didn’t wear breeches and do everything the exact opposite of what he orders. It’ll be a miracle if the sparks flying between Ian and Louisa don’t set the bloody ship afire before they arrive in America.

But just when Louisa thinks her plan is going to give her the acting career she wants and a Highlander to boot...Ian discovers her secret.

My Review:

Saving the Scot is a hijinks tale of mistaken identity, secrets, and outright lies that make the reader wonder which Scot needs to be saved most. Louisa is the spoiled motherless little sister who terrorizes her father with her refusal to do anything conventional. Since he spends so much time away either on the battlefield or in military training, she’s been left to her own devices, which has led her to the debauched life of play-acting. On the public stage. Ian’s battle scars are more than skin deep, and after five years of attempting to heal as captain of a family merchant ship, he’s ready to leap back into the regimentation of military life. A major hitch in his plans arrives with the news of his fatherhood, a young lad being cared for by an ailing grandmother.

Framed by the false identities of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Trethewey, who’s an actress turned author, finally pens a story of what she knows best. Louisa lives as though she’s preparing for a role and uses the behavior as an excuse to cover her deepest fears of abandonment and closed-in spaces. When her father sends her away to marry her brother’s acquaintance in America, Ian is tasked with seeing her safely there. But Louisa has other plans and gets her maid to exchange identities. Feeling free to act on his attraction to the supposed lady’s maid, the two allow themselves to get carried away. Through various events involving pirates, thieves, sex traffickers, and another acquaintance with a false identity, the two sort out their future goals and wishes.

Although this story is part of a series of familial characters, it can be read on its own. Other characters are mentioned, and the allusion to the portent dream concluding the previous story, that of Ian marrying a woman in trousers, are the only ties to the other books. Told in opposing points of view from Louis and Ian, readers of romantic fiction will appreciate the research and attention to detail, along with the lusty relationship sparking the adventure.

About the Author:

Jennifer Trethewey is an actor-turned-writer who has moved her performances from the stage to the page. In 2013 she traveled to Scotland for the first time, where she instantly fell for the language, humor, intense sense of pride, and breathtaking landscape. Her love for Scotland was translated into her first series of historical romance novels, the Highlanders of Balforss.

Trethewey’s primary experience in bringing the imaginary to life was working for one of the oldest women’s theaters in the nation, where she was the co-founder and co-artistic director. Today she continues to act, but writes contemporary and historical fiction full-time. Her other loves include dogs, movies, music and good wine. She lives in Milwaukee with her husband.