Posted in coming of age, Giveaway, Guest Post, Interview on June 18, 2020

 

 

ALL THINGS LEFT WILD

 

by

 

James Wade

 

 

Genre: Adventure / Rural Fiction / Coming of Age

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Publication Date: June 16, 2020

Number of Pages: 304 pages

 

Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

 

 

After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, sixteen-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century. Caleb’s moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill.

Wealthy and bookish Randall Dawson, out of place in this rugged and violent country, is begrudgingly chasing after the Bentley brothers. With little sense of how to survive, much less how to take his revenge, Randall meets Charlotte, a woman experienced in the deadly ways of life in the West. Together they navigate the murky values of vigilante justice.

Powerful and atmospheric, lyrical and fast-paced, All Things Left Wild is a coming-of-age for one man, a midlife odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. It artfully sketches the magnificence of the American West as mirrored in the human soul.

 

 

Amazon ┃ BookPeople ┃ Bookshop.orgIndieBound

 

 

Praise

 

“A debut full of atmosphere and awe. Wade gives emotional depth to his dust-covered characters and creates an image of the American West that is harsh and unforgiving, but — like All Things Left Wild — not without hope.” — Texas Literary Hall of Fame member Sarah BirdDaughter of a Daughter of a Queen

“James Wade has delivered a McCarthy-esque odyssey with an Elmore Leonard ear for dialogue. All Things Left Wild moves like a coyote across this cracked-earth landscape—relentlessly paced and ambitiously hungry.” — Edgar Award finalist David Joy, When These Mountains Burn

 

 

 

Author James Wade gives video answers to questions posed to him for his Lone Star Lit Blog Tour of All Things Left Wild.

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Wade lives and writes in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter. He has had twenty short stories published in various literary magazines and journals. He is the winner of the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest and a finalist of the Tethered by Letters Short Fiction Contest. All Things Left Wild is his debut novel.

 

  Website ║ Facebook ║ Blog

 

Instagram ║  YouTube ║ Goodreads

 

 

 

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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

 

TWO WINNERS: A signed copy of All Things Left Wild

 

JUNE 18-28, 2020

 

(US ONLY)

 

 

 

 

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Visit the Lone Star Literary Life Tour Page

 

For direct links to each post on this tour, updated daily,

 

or visit the blogs directly:

6/18/20 Author Video StoreyBook Reviews
6/18/20 Excerpt Missus Gonzo
6/19/20 Review Chapter Break Book Blog
6/19/20 Scrapbook Book Fidelity
6/20/20 Review That’s What She’s Reading
6/21/20 Author Interview Forgotten Winds
6/22/20 Review Reading by Moonlight
6/23/20 Review The Page Unbound
6/23/20 Guest Post KayBee’s Book Shelf
6/24/20 Top Ten The Clueless Gent
6/25/20 Review Book Bustle
6/25/20 Playlist All the Ups and Downs
6/26/20 Author Interview Texas Book Lover
6/27/20 Review Max Knight
6/27/20 Review Bibliotica

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 4 paws, excerpt, Giveaway, Interview, Review, women on June 3, 2020

 

 

 

 

Title: If You Must Know

Author: Jamie Beck

Release Date: June 1, 2020

Publisher: Montlake

 

Synopsis

 

Sisters Amanda Foster and Erin Turner have little in common except the childhood bedroom they once shared and the certainty each feels that her way of life is best. Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.

The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.

 

 

Amazon * B&N

 

 

Q&A with Bestselling Author Jamie Beck

 

How do you describe your newest novel If You Must Know?

 

This book is a “beach book” in the best sense. It’s not angsty, yet it has a page-turning plot and a bunch of interesting, relatable characters. I think it’s entertaining and heartfelt at the same time, which is exactly what many enjoy reading while on vacation.

 

What inspired the novel?

 

The external plot came to me as a result of the influence of two people in my life. My dear friend’s husband is a forensic accountant, so some of his stories about how people hide money and flee their families provided one point of inspiration. The second is my mother’s best friend who, in her seventies, sold her house and bought a boat, which she and her husband live on full-time. The impetus for the oil-and-water sisters was to provide myself an opportunity to explore the sibling-rivalry dynamic.

 

Tell us about the two main characters in the story—sisters Amanda and Erin.

 

Amanda is the middle child. She’s diligent, earnest, hard-working, and generous. She wants the people she loves to be happy and feel her love. Her weakness is a deep-seated insecurity—a sense that she is not interesting enough to be lovable. This leads her to overlook when she is being taken for granted because her need to be pleasing is omnipresent.

Erin is the baby of the family and her late-father’s pet. She is outgoing, fun-loving, and views her average intelligence as a blessing (rather than lamenting that her siblings are smarter). She is willful and has her own way of moving through the world. The big weakness she has is her impulsiveness, whether with jobs or relationships. As she approaches her 30th birthday, she’s looking to mature and create a more stable life for herself.

 

What kind of relationship do the sisters have?

 

I think they share a typical relationship insofar as their differences cause many misunderstandings and instill in each a sense of being judged by the other, and yet they do care about and love each other, too. They simply do not know how to be true friends and trust the other—at least not at the outset of this tale.

 

This book focused on the main female characters growing and learning about themselves. What prompted this ‘women’s fiction’ approach to the story?

 

Partly market forces and partly my own need to stretch. At 53, it was becoming more difficult to write a 20-something woman facing the challenges of dating. The shift to women’s fiction allows me to write late-30 and early 40-something characters, which comes more naturally to me. I also enjoy exploring family and friendship dynamics, and absolutely love having endless options for story arcs (as opposed to having to follow a traditional romance arc).

 

What does your new Potomac Point series have in common with your previous books?

 

All my books to date have focused on critical relationships and some type of redemption theme. I find damaged people to be very interesting and believe that there is good in most everyone, so I prefer to populate my stories with flawed people who must confront their inner demons in order to be happy. My new books will also focus on relationships and redemption, but the non-romantic relationships (or even the relationship with one’s self) will be more central.

 

***

 

If You Must Know Excerpt

 

I rolled onto my side with a groan, coming face-to-face with one of my favorite family photos. We’d taken our annual family summer trip to Hilton Head—the one real splurge my dad had made sure we enjoyed every year. We had a tradition of having lunch at a little open-air cabana bar and restaurant called Coco’s on the Beach.

Between the deck and the volleyball court in the sand stood a tall pole with colorful arrow-shaped signs pointing in different directions. Each one was painted with the name of a different city somewhere on the globe, along with the mileage to get there. We’d dream about all the places we might go, and after high school I’d had the chance to see many. In this picture, our whole family is standing around that sign, smiling at the camera. My dad has his hand on my shoulder, and if you look closely, you can see Amanda holding my hand. I must’ve been only five or six—young enough that she hadn’t given up trying to be my second mother. At the time, I’d felt smothered by her attention, but looking back, I’d also felt loved.

I grabbed my phone and called my sister, but it went to voice mail. A heaviness pressed on me, but I couldn’t tell if it was from looking at that picture of our family that would never again be whole or from the fact that I’d disappointed my mom and sister today.

They loved me in their way even if they couldn’t love and accept me as I am. My dad had, though, and to honor his memory and wishes for our family, I couldn’t continue to drift out of their lives as I’d been doing.

After the beep, I said, “Hey, it’s moi. Surprise! My plans have changed and I’ve got a little time. If you get this message, let me know where you are and I’ll try to catch up.”

I hit “End,” my feet restlessly kicking the foot of my bed. The small bedroom seemed claustrophobic, but I didn’t want to talk to Max. Not that I could avoid him in here, either, where his dirty laundry, sandals, and other items lay about. Rather than take a match to it all, I decided to organize some of his things to help with his packing. Hauling myself off the bed, I then went to the armoire to get to the vintage albums my dad had left me in his will.

Some were fairly valuable, like the Beatles collection box set from 1982, valued at roughly a thousand bucks. Or the Led Zeppelin first pressing with the turquoise label, which should net around eight hundred or so dollars. U2’s Joshua Tree collection box set from 1987—maybe worth six or seven hundred. Then there were others worth less than one hundred dollars. But each one had infinite sentimental value.

Every song resurrected a specific memory of time spent with my father playing cards, washing cars, grilling hot dogs … anything. Whatever he’d wanted to do, I’d done with him, and he’d always chosen the perfect background soundtrack for every activity. Those stolen moments had also been a great way to escape my mom’s endless lectures and demands. She’d never yelled at me for skipping out on chores or being messy when I’d been spending that time with him. Probably because he wouldn’t let her.

At present, my restlessness matched the mood of a typical Bob Seger song, so I grabbed Beautiful Loser and slipped the record from its sleeve, resisting the urge to hug it as if it were my dad. I set it on the old turntable he’d also left me. As the few first drumbeats clangored, my heart kicked an extra beat or two—partly happy, partly sad. I glanced toward the bedroom door, picturing Max on the sofa, and then got to work.

It didn’t matter where life led me next. I had faith because my own personal angel was looking out for me now.

Que será, será.

 

 

Review

 

Families are a complicated mess, but when the chips are down those differences disappear and you find out who really has your back.

The Foster family is truly a unique family with diverse personalities.  Amanda and Erin approach life differently.  Amanda seems very uptight and perhaps she feels like she needs to be perfect.  Erin is the wild child and lives life as it comes.  Erin didn’t feel like she fit into her family except with her dad.  Nancy, the mom, is much like Amanda and that causes some friction between the three women.  There were many times I wanted to shake Nancy and tell her to get over herself if she thinks she is that important that she has to worry about what people will say about Amanda’s now scandalous life.  I could say the same about Amanda and her fears about what others will think about her situation.  It takes Erin shaking things up to loosen them up by the end of the book.

I was surprised at how some situations were handled with Lyle, Amanda’s husband, at the end.  I won’t go into too much detail, but I’m not sure if the situation would have ended this way in real life.  But let’s just say that Lyle gets his just rewards.

I did enjoy watching Erin discover what a real relationship should be like when she meets Eli.  He has his own issues, but the two of them are able to help each other move forward in life.  I’m not sure if future books in this series will touch back on these characters, but I hope so because I don’t think their story is finished.

A couple of quotes that really stuck out while I was reading this book:

“Will there ever be a day when people stop demanding that others conform to their own expectations?”

“Most people are good people, yet bad things happen every day. You and I? We aren’t unique victims.”

Overall we give this 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

National bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than two million copies. She’s a Booksellers’ Best Award and National Readers’ Choice Award finalist, and critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing, the author of the Cabot novels, the Sterling Canyon novels, and the St. James series enjoys dancing around the kitchen while cooking and hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family.

Fans can learn more about her on her website, www.jamiebeck.com, which includes a fun “Extras” page with photos, videos, and playlists. She also loves interacting with everyone on Facebook.

 

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Giveaway

 

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Posted in fiction, Giveaway, Historical, Interview on May 27, 2020

 

 

 

 

Book Title: Between These Walls by Michael Newman

Category: Adult Fiction 18 yrs +, 375 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Friesen Press

Release date: March 26, 2020

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

A novel of historical fiction that turns on two key events: the discovery of a beautiful blonde woman’s body in the back seat of a burnt out SS staff car during the last days of World War II, by US Army Medical Corps Colonel Samuel Singer, and the unsealing more than four decades later of a security-taped package from Germany, bearing a secret that changes the life of New York art curator Daniel Singer, the adopted son of Colonel Singer.

As Daniel learns more about the package’s contents, he unlocks the history of three families — one American and two German – through tumultuous times, from the end of the First World War to the rise of Adolf Hitler, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and through to three Middle East wars. Along the way, he gets entangled in the web of the Mossad, Israel’s top secret spy agency and Naomi one of its beautiful operatives, and is ultimately faced with a life-altering choice – and the opportunity to right the most heinous of wrongs.

 

 

 

 

Interview with Michael Newman

 

How did you come up with the premise of the novel?

 

On a visit to Berlin, Germany, my wife and I were walking along a street named Meineke Strasse, which features prominently in the book, when I noticed some brass plaques embedded in the sidewalk. They had the names of Jews who had lived in the apartment building above the plaques in the 1930’s and 40’s who had been taken by the Nazis, shipped off to concentration camps, and had their apartments taken over by Aryan Germans. I wondered what had happened to the people who had been shipped to the camps, to the apartments they left behind, who was occupying them now, and how they came into possession of them. So I built the story around that.

 

What made you write a book about the Holocaust?

 

Primarily because my Father spent eight months in captivity in Mauthausen, a notorious Nazi concentration camp in Austria, in 1944/45. Also many people, especially the younger generation, don’t know anything about the Holocaust and there are many Holocaust deniers out there who trivialize what happened to people simply because of their religion in those terrible years. Six million people died between 1939 and 1945 at the hands of the Nazis.

 

Your book is set in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Israel. Have you visited those places?

 

I was born in Hungary, and yes I’ve been to all the places mentioned in the book. I’ve been to Berlin, Munich, Mauthausen, Budapest, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. I’ve visited the key locations where events in the book take place and absorbed the atmosphere generated by these places, which helped me with the writing of the book.

 

What is your next project?

 

My next project is to write a sequel to “Between These Walls.” It would follow the career and adventures of Daniel Singer’s daughter (whom he never met), as she prepares and embarks on a mission to find and avenge her father’s killers in Lybia, after joining the CIA.

 

What genre do you write in and why?

 

I write historical fiction. History is something that truly interests me. What has happened, and why it happened in the past is very fascinating. The rise and fall of historical figures teaches us a great many lessons. It is very interesting to see how empires and countries evolve through conflict and peaceful times and how political systems succeed and fail.

 

What is the last great book you’ve read?

 

“Children of a Faraway War” by Wendy Gruner. It is the true life story of two Australian sisters whose father died as an RAF radio operator in a Lancaster bomber crash in the Second World War, while they were very young. The book describes the sisters’ journey back to England to visit all the places their father had served in England, following his diary. It is truly a historical memoir with detailed description of Bomber Command, with a very humanistic approach, as the girls discover things about their late father that they never knew.

 

 

About the Author

 

A Hungarian refugee (1956) and the son of Holocaust survivors. A retired lifetime entrepreneur living on Toronto’s waterfront with my wife and cocker spaniel. Enjoys reading, mainly books about WW2, boating and worldwide travel. Father of three kids and grandfather of eleven.

 

Website  ~  Facebook ~ Twitter

 

 

Giveaway

 

Prizes: ​ Win 1 of 10 ebooks of BETWEEN THESE WALLS by Michael Newman (10 winners)

(ends June 5)

 

 

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Posted in Fantasy, Giveaway, Interview, mystery, Young Adult on May 13, 2020

 

 

 

 

The Nightjar’s Promise (Book 4 of The F.I.G. Mysteries) by Barbara Casey

 

YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 130 pages

 

Genre: Mystery, Fantasy

 

Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press)

 

Release date: April, 2020

 

 

Synopsis

 

Jennifer Torres, one of the three FIGs (Females of Intellectual Genius) who is a genius in both music and art, is the last to leave the closed rehearsal for her upcoming performance over Thanksgiving break at Carnegie Hall when she hears something in the darkened Hall. Recognizing the tilt of the woman’s head and the slight limp of the man as they hurry out an exit door, she realizes it is her parents who were supposedly killed in a terrible car accident when she was 15 years old. Devastated and feeling betrayed, she sends a text to Carolina and the other two FIGs—THURGOOD. It is the code word they all agreed to use if ever one of them got into trouble or something happened that was too difficult to handle. They would all meet back at Carolina’s bungalow at Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women to figure it out.

As soon as they receive the text, because of their genius, Dara starts thinking of words in ancient Hebrew, German, and Yiddish, while Mackenzie’s visions of unique math formulae keep bringing up the date October 11, 1943. That is the date during World War II when the Nazis—the Kunstschutz—looted the paintings of targeted wealthy Jewish families and hid them away under Hitler’s orders. And as Carolina waits for the FIGs to return to Wood Rose, she hears warnings from Lyuba, her gypsy mother, to watch for the nightjar, the ancient name for the whip-poor-will.

As they search for “The Nightjar’s Promise” and the truth surrounding it, Carolina and the FIGs come face to face with evil that threatens to destroy not only their genius, but their very lives.

 

 

 

 

 

Interview

 

Today we are lucky enough to have Barbara here with us on StoreyBook Reviews.  I enjoyed her answers to the questions and I hope you learn a little bit more about her as I did.

 

When writing about the F.I.G.s (Females of Intellectual Genius) and Carolina in The Nightjar’s Promise, did you have a favorite character?

 

Carolina and the F.I.G.s (Dara, Mackenzie, and Jennifer) have been living in my life and imagination for several years now. I am embarrassed to say how attached I have become to them, and writing The Nightjar’s Promise, knowing it would be the final book in the series, was emotional. I guess you could say I love Carolina and each of the F.I.G.s equally because they are so different and in spite of their flaws.

 

Where did you get inspiration for your stories in this series?

 

I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, for many years. I attended NC State University and then later worked there. Near where I lived was an orphanage, and I think driving by it each day is what first gave me the idea of writing a book about orphans. Then, once I actually started writing The Cadence of Gypsies years later, followed by The Wish Rider, The Clock Flower, and now The Nightjar’s Promise, I researched things that were out of the ordinary that would somehow connect to either Carolina or one of the F.I.G.s. The Voynich Manuscript, the most mysterious document in the world, was perfect for Carolina and her story. In Dara’s story, The Wish Rider, I felt it was important to learn the reason her mother abandoned her in a candy shop when she was a little girl. Mackenzie, in The Clock Flower, also needed to find the answers to the questions she had; such as why was she turned over to an orphanage right after she was born, and who were her parents? And most important, why is she in danger? Jennifer’s story in The Nightjar’s Promise was especially difficult because she was betrayed by the people who should have loved and cared for her the most. By connecting each girl’s genius to the reasons they were in an orphanage to begin with seemed to provide the answers.

 

Are you writing anything now?

 

I have gone back to an adult novel I have been thinking about. I am also thinking about another young/new adult series.

 

Do you have a set routine when you write?

 

Absolutely! That is the only way I can create anything. I have always needed routine in my life, having grown up in a military family. So, early (very early) mornings are my time to write. The rest of the day I devote to my agency and to the independent publishing house that focuses on nonfiction/true crime where I am a partner. There are three rescue cats now in our little family who are learning how to get along, and my mother who lives with us is 97 years old. Everything considered, I have a pretty full day.

 

I want to thank you for inviting me to be a guest on your blog and for your interest in my books. I wish you and your bloggers my very best. ~Barbara

 

 

About the Author

 

Originally from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara Casey attended the University of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and history. In 1978 she left her position as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript evaluation and editorial service. In 1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books, an independent nonfiction publisher of true crime, where she oversees acquisitions, day-to-day operations, and book production.

Ms. Casey has written over a dozen award-winning books of fiction and nonfiction for both young adults and adults. The awards include the National Association of University Women Literary Award, the Sir Walter Raleigh Literary Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel, the IP Best Book for Regional Fiction, among others. Two of her nonfiction books have been optioned for major films, one of which is under contract.

Her award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in both national and international publications including the North Carolina Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A thirty-minute television special which Ms. Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also received special recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of Albanian children’s stories. Her award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms. Casey’s essays and other works appear in The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).

Ms. Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she served as guest author and panelist. She has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. In 2018 Ms. Casey received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas. She makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with her husband and three cats who adopted her, Homer, Reese, and Earl Gray – Reese’s best friend.

 

Website ~  GoodreadsFacebook

 

Giveaway

 

Prizes: ​ Win 1 of 3 print or 1 of 3 ebook of Barbara Casey’s THE NIGHTJAR’S PROMISE, or a $25 Amazon Gift Card (open USA & Canada) (7 win (ends May 29)

 

 

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Posted in Giveaway, Interview, memoir, nonfiction on April 26, 2020

 

 

Full Circle: A Memoir

 

by

 

Pamela Lombana

 

 

Genre:  Memoir / Domestic Abuse / Forgiveness

Publisher: Wordfall Publishing

Date of Publication: December 5, 2019

Number of Pages: 217

 

Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

 

Alcoholism and domestic abuse creep silently into people’s lives, shattering dreams. For Pamela Lombana, the excitement of marriage turned into paralyzing fear as alcohol became her husband’s best friend. Surviving the daily physical and emotional abuse was the norm for her and their children. Full Circle tells the story of how love and God’s abiding grace helped Pamela find the strength to leave her husband, Fernando. During this journey, healing and forgiveness allowed her and the children to be there for him when he needed them the most.

 

 

 

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Today we are lucky enough to have Pamela Lombana join us on StoreyBook Reviews with some insights into her life and her book.  I hope you find some of her answers as intriguing as I did!

 

Why did you choose to write in your particular genre?

 

I chose to write a memoir about my experiences dealing with domestic abuse and an alcoholic spouse. It began as a story that I wrote because I wanted my children to understand the facts and my side of the story that we lived together. The only way to break the cycle of abuse is through awareness and honesty, so I wanted to help them understand the patterns of abuse and give them the power to break the cycle in their own lives.

 

Where did your love of books come from?

 

As long as I can remember, my mom always had a book with her and was constantly reading out loud to us growing up. Books were our way of escaping to different worlds, times, and places. As I became a mother, I kept that love of reading and stories with me and passed it on to my children. Books are the glue that has held our family together through everything, and sharing books and stories is what kept me and my mom close, even when we were physically separated.

 

How long have you been writing?

 

Since childhood—my first diary was given to me by my grandmother when I was six years old, and I’ve kept one ever since.

 

Why did you decide to self-publish?

 

I wasn’t going to publish this book originally—I wrote this book for my children as a private family memoir. Because I wrote it in English, my second language, I asked family and friends to help me edit it or give me feedback on snippets of the book as I was in the process of writing it.

I was surprised when I was consistently told that I needed to publish it “because this book could help other people in similar situations.” When you deal with abuse and alcoholism, you’re constantly hiding a secret. So many people who knew me during the years discussed in the book were shocked to hear my story, but everybody who read little parts of it while I was in the process of compiling my old letters and writings knew somebody who they thought needed to hear, could relate to, and could benefit from my and my children’s story of survival and forgiveness, so I decided to self-publish.

 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

 

When writing a memoir, you try to stay as close to the truth and facts as possible. I knew this book would share information with my children that they were not aware of at the time and that reading the book would force them to remember and relive some of the hardest times of our lives.

 

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

 

While reliving parts of my family’s story was difficult—our life was a rollercoaster—the moments of intense hardship were accompanied by moments of intense happiness. When you’re suffering so much, you learn to find joy in everything. Remembering and reliving all of the happy times we had made me proud of my family and our ability to find happiness in any situation and learn to laugh and grow when faced with challenges.

 

What do you like to read in your free time?

 

Historical fiction and biographies

 

Who would you cast to play your character in a movie version of your book?

 

Julia Roberts because I love her movies!

 

If you could speak with an accent from anywhere in the world, what would you choose and why?

 

Italian because every Italian whom I know loves their life and embraces life passionately.

 

What’s something interesting, fun, or funny that most people don’t know about you?

 

When I was ten years old in Medellin, Colombia, my mom sent me and my siblings to a yoga retreat in an ashram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pamela Lombana grew up in Colombia, South America, and emigrated to the United States to attend university. In 1999, Pamela became a pediatric nurse practitioner and went on to run a pediatric clinic in Spring Branch, Texas. Pamela loves working with families and children and focuses on educating her patients and their families. Pamela values strong family ties and friendships. She has three children and four stepchildren. Writing is a passion that started in Pamela’s teenage years. She enjoys being amongst nature and loves to go hiking with her husband, Mark.

Pamela is passionate about empowering women and providing them with tools to navigate life through her book, Full Circle: A Memoir, her blog, and Wordfall Publishing. Pamela wrote her memoir to offer hope and courage to women experiencing alcoholic and abusive situations.

 

 

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Amazon Author Page ║ Wordfall Publishing

 

 

 

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

 

THREE WINNERS: Signed copy of Full Circle 

 

APRIL 21-May 1, 2020

 

(U.S. Only)

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

 

4/21/20 Notable Quotable Reading by Moonlight
4/21/20 BONUS Post Hall Ways Blog
4/22/20 Review Book Fidelity
4/23/20 Excerpt The Clueless Gent
4/24/20 Review Tangled in Text
4/25/20 Review KayBee’s Book Shelf
4/26/20 Author Interview StoreyBook Reviews
4/27/20 Review Rainy Days with Amanda
4/28/20 Guest Post All the Ups and Downs
4/29/20 Review Carpe Diem Chronicles
4/30/20 Review Kelly Well Read

 

 

 

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Comments Off on Interview & #Giveaway – Full Circle by Pamela Lombana @AuthorPLombana #forgiveness #survivor #texasauthor #memoir #LoneStarLit
Posted in 5 paws, Biography, Giveaway, Interview, Review on April 19, 2020

 

 

For Spacious Skies

 

Katharine Lee Bates and the Inspiration for “America The Beautiful”

 

By

Nancy Churnin

 

 

illustrated by Olga Baumert

 

Picture Book Biography / Women’s Suffrage / Woman Poet

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company

Date of Publication: April 1, 2020

Number of Pages: 32

Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

 

 

As a little girl growing up during the Civil War, Katharine Lee Bates grew up to become a poet, professor, and social activist. She not only wrote “America the Beautiful” but gave this anthem to America as a gift. A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a suffragist who stood up for a woman’s right to vote and lived to cast her ballot in presidential elections, Katharine believed in the power of words to make a difference. In “America the Beautiful,” her vision of the nation as a great family, united from sea to shining sea, continues to uplift and inspire us all.

 

 

Praise

 

“Churnin tells that story in a spare and lively text beautifully complemented by double-page spreads highlighting Baumert’s gorgeous panoramic illustrations . . . A handsome volume befitting its subject.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

“The story ends on a high note in 1920, with Bates casting her ballot after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to women . . . The richly colored, nicely composed artwork will help children visualize the period setting while enjoying the portrayals of Bates and beautiful landscapes. A picture-book biography of a notable American.”—Booklist

 

“Nancy Churnin has written a delightful book that helps children understand the many dimensions of my great-aunt Katharine Lee Bates. This book does an excellent job conveying her ardent passion for equal rights and for her country. She was a poet, a professor, and a world traveler, but she was first and foremost a citizen who loved America, in all its beauty and diversity.”—Katharine Lee Holland

 

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Author Interview with Nancy Churnin

 

How has being a Texan influenced your writing?

 

Texans have a can-do-it attitude. When I find someone amazing like Katharine Lee Bates, a person that I feel kids should know about but don’t, I don’t worry about why there isn’t a current book out about her. I think, “I can do that,” and I do it.

 

Is there anything that you learned in your research that you weren’t able to include in the book?

 

As much as I tried, given the length and thematic constraints of a picture book, I couldn’t find a way to cram in that she also wrote “Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride,” a poem about MRS. SANTA CLAUS! The female empowerment is wonderful as is the creation of Mrs. Claus. Ironically, Mrs. Claus saves the day by mending holes in stockings so that the toys don’t fall out. The irony, of course, is that Katharine hated sewing so much that when she was given dolls as a child she would just plaster leaves on them for clothes rather than sew fabric together. I think Goody Santa Claus was a tribute to her widowed mother, who took in sewing as well as laundry, to help make the money that allowed Katharine to go to school.

 

Why did you choose to write in your particular genre?

 

I’ve spent decades profiling people as a journalist, first with the Los Angeles Times and most recently with the Dallas Morning News, with many magazines and newspapers in between. While picture-book biographies are a very different art form than newspaper features, they do share some common characteristics: identifying a person with a great story, researching that person, and evoking sensory details that make you feel you’re there.

 

Where did your love of books come from?

 

Both my parents loved to read so much that, when they married in the midst of the Great Depression, their first purchase was the book Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith. My mother was a teacher, now retired, and when they were able to afford their first home, the first thing they did was transform what should have been a dining room into a floor-to-ceiling library, with comfortable chairs. I grew up with the philosophy, “Let them eat books!” That room and my neighborhood public library were my favorite places to be.

 

How long have you been writing?

 

It’s hard for me to remember a time when I wasn’t writing! My first book was published in 2016, but I have been writing poems and short stories in a journal since I was old enough to write and newspaper articles since I was in junior high school. My sister found a copy of a book I wrote and illustrated myself called “A Boy Called Doodlebug and Other Names.” The kids and I laugh together when I share it at presentations.

 

What kinds of writing do you do?

 

My nine books are all picture-book biographies. I look forward to stretching and trying new genres, including historical fiction.

 

How do you write? Any backstory to your choice?

 

A mix of longhand and computer. Writing things out seems to get different parts of the brain humming than typing on the computer does.

 

What cultural value do you see in books and storytelling?

 

Books are at once magical and spiritual. They allow us to fill pages with our hopes, dreams, and ideas and share them with others in a way that allows them to experience and feel what we’ve experienced and felt, across ages, genders, religions, races—all those things that we allow to separate us—and to recognize our common humanity.

 

There’s a reason that one of Adolf Hitler’s first acts was to burn books. He needed to destroy the repositories of humanity in order to get people to obey his inhumane commands. There’s a reason that Ray Bradbury created a futuristic world in which firemen burn books in his book, Fahrenheit 451. He recognized that the first step in isolating, separating, and weakening communities was eliminating the books with stories that bind us together. Leaders who value control above all, like Hitler, are the enemies of books. Conversely, those of us who want to build a better world, a more humane world, a world of hope and love, can do it with books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a picture book meant for young children or toddlers.  This book is perfect for elementary school children (or older) and teaches the reader about the author of a poem set to music that we know as “America The Beautiful.”

I have sung this song many times in my life and never thought much about the words or the author that penned them.  However, after reading this book, I was intrigued by Katharine’s life and how she came to write this poem that became a sort of national anthem for the United States.  It isn’t the official one, but reading the words felt like it described our country and its people.  The poem went through several revisions before it became the one we know today.  I could picture her crossing the country and observing the “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties” that inspired her words.  The original poem was written 127 years ago and the USA was a different country then, but we can still see some of what Katharine saw all those years ago.

The illustrations really brought the words of this poem to life.  There is an illustration of Niagara Falls and I felt like I could feel the water and dip my hands into the blue water.  Side note, make sure if you read the eBook version to have a table or color e-Reader to view the book.  An e-Ink reader will not do the illustrations justice.

Outside of her achievement with this poem, Katharine was quite a remarkable woman.  She helped fight for women’s rights, especially the right to vote.  She believed that women could do anything that men could do and encouraged education for all.

This book captures some of our history that might be lost and the format is perfect for anyone to read and whet their appetite for more about Katharine or anyone else that helped shape our country.  We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Churnin is the award-winning author of eight picture book biographies with a ninth due in 2021.

 

Beautiful Shades of Brown, The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring is A Mighty Girl pick that will be featured at the 2020 Ruby Bridges Reading Festival at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee in May. The William Hoy Story, a Texas 2X2 pick, has been on multiple state reading lists. Manjhi Moves a Mountain is the winner of the 2018 South Asia Book Award and a Junior Library Guild selection. Martin & Anne, the Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank is on the 2020 Notable Book for a Global Society list from the International Literacy Association. Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing is a 2019 Sydney Taylor and National Council for the Social Studies Notable.

 

Nancy graduated cum laude from Harvard, has a master’s from Columbia, and lives in Plano, Texas, with her husband, Dallas Morning News arts writer Michael Granberry, their dog named Dog, and two cantankerous cats.

 

 

Website ║ Blog ║ Facebook ║ Twitter ║ Instagram

 

Goodreads ║ Amazon Author Page ║ BookBub

 

 

 

————————————-

 

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

 

THREE WINNERS

 

ONE WINNER receives signed copies of both 

 

For Spacious Skies and Beautiful Shades of Brown 

 

TWO WINNERS each receive a signed copy of For Spacious Skies

 

April 16-26, 2020

 

(US only for signed copies; international winners via Book Depository)

 

 

 

 

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Check out the other blogs on this tour

 

4/16/20 Notable Quotable Book Fidelity
4/16/20 Review Carpe Diem Chronicles
4/17/20 Book Trailer KayBee’s Book Shelf
4/18/20 Review Chapter Break Book Blog
4/18/20 Sneak Peek Hall Ways Blog
4/19/20 Author Interview StoreyBook Reviews
4/20/20 Review Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
4/21/20 Playlist Texas Book Lover
4/21/20 Review That’s What She’s Reading
4/22/20 Author Interview Tangled in Text
4/23/20 Guest Post Max Knight
4/23/20 Review All the Ups and Downs
4/24/20 Deleted Scene Reading by Moonlight
4/25/20 Review Forgotten Winds
4/25/20 Review Jennifer Silverwood

 

 

 

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Posted in Giveaway, Interview, mystery on April 1, 2020

 

 

 

A GIRL LIKE YOU: Beautiful Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar, Poor Pete’s, on Chicago’s northwest side. It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide. Left to care for her antagonistic mother and seven younger siblings, Henrietta is persuaded to take a job as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall. Henrietta is just beginning to enjoy herself, dancing with men for ten cents a dance, when the floor matron suddenly turns up murdered. The aloof Inspector Clive Howard then appears on the scene, and Henrietta unwittingly finds herself involved in unraveling the mystery when she agrees to go undercover for him in a burlesque theater where he believes the killer lurks.

Even as Henrietta is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld, she struggles to still play the mother “hen” to her younger siblings and even to the pesky neighborhood boy, Stanley, who believes himself in love with her and continues to pop up in the most unlikely places, determined, ironically, to keep Henrietta safe, even from the Inspector if needs be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most unsuitable ways.

 

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A RING OF TRUTH: In this second book of the series, Henrietta and Clive delightfully rewrite Pride and Prejudice―with a hint of mystery!

Newly engaged, Clive and Henrietta now begin the difficult task of meeting each other’s family. “Difficult” because Clive has neglected to tell Henrietta that he is in fact the heir to the Howard estate and fortune, and Henrietta has just discovered that her mother has been hiding secrets about her past as well. When Clive brings Henrietta to the family estate to meet his parents, they are less than enthused about his impoverished intended. Left alone in this extravagant new world when Clive returns to the city, Henrietta finds herself more at home with the servants than his family, much to the disapproval of Mrs. Howard―and soon gets caught up in the disappearance of an elderly servant’s ring, not realizing that in doing so she has become part of a bigger, darker plot.
As Clive and Henrietta attempt to discover the truth in the two very different worlds unraveling around them, they both begin to wonder: Are they meant for each other after all?

 

 

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A PROMISE GIVEN: This third book in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English countryside and back.

Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by Oldrich Exley’s attempts to control the Von Harmons. When the long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just Clive and Henrietta’s vows of love. Stanley and Elsie’s relationship is sorely tested by the presence of the dashing Lieutenant Harrison Barnes-Smith and by Henrietta’s friend Rose―a situation that grows increasingly dark and confused as time goes on.

As Clive and Henrietta begin their honeymoon at Castle Linley, the Howards’ ancestral estate in England, they encounter a whole new host of characters, including the eccentric Lord and Lady Linley and Clive’s mysterious cousin, Wallace. When a man is murdered in the village on the night of a house party at the Castle, Wallace comes under suspicion―and Clive and Henrietta are reluctantly drawn into the case, despite Clive’s anxiety at involving his new bride and Henrietta’s distracting news from home.
Delicately attempting to work together for the first time, Clive and Henrietta set out to prove Wallace’s innocence, uncovering as they do so some rather shocking truths that will shake the Linley name and estate forever.

 

 

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A VEIL REMOVED: Murder is never far from this sexy couple . . . even during the holidays!

Their honeymoon abruptly ended by the untimely death of Alcott Howard, Clive and Henrietta return to Highbury, where Clive discovers all is not as it should be. Increasingly convinced that his father’s death was not an accident, Clive launches his own investigation, despite his mother’s belief that he has become “mentally disturbed” with grief. Henrietta eventually joins forces with Clive on their first real case, which becomes darker―and deadlier―than they imagined as they get closer to the truth behind Alcott’s troubled affairs.

Meanwhile, Henrietta’s sister, Elsie, begins, at Henrietta’s orchestration, to take classes at a women’s college―an attempt to evade her troubles and prevent any further romantic temptations. When she meets a bookish German custodian at the school, however, he challenges her to think for herself . . . even as she discovers some shocking secrets about his past life.

 

 

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PREORDER! Release Date: April 28, 2020

 

A CHILD LOST: A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . .

When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant Frank Davis for a case, he is assigned to investigating a seemingly boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of their valuables. What begins as an open and shut case becomes more complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to believe the spiritualist’s strange ramblings.

Meanwhile, Elsie begs Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some terrible truths about Liesel. When the child, Anna, is herself mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however, Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own hands . . . with horrifying results.

 

 

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Interview with Michelle Cox

 

What attracted you to writing about the 1930s in Chicago?

 

That’s a good question because I’ve actually always been more attracted to the 1940s.  When I was fishing around for an idea for a new novel, however, I decided to base my protagonist, Henrietta Von Harmon, on a real woman I met while working at a nursing home on Chicago’s NW side.

This woman was apparently a real bombshell in the 1930s depression-era Chicago and had a whole string of strange jobs, including working at the Chicago’s World’s Fair in 1933 as a “Dutch Girl.”  This detail was so intriguing to me that I just couldn’t pass it up.  So I shifted the book from the 1940s to the 1930s to make it work.  I didn’t realize at the time I was starting a series, however, or I might have at least initially thought twice about what decade to set it in.

 

So it didn’t start off as a series?

 

No, funnily enough!  I was originally writing just a one-off mystery because I thought I could attract an agent that way (as it turns out – not so much), but as I got deeper into the story, I started to really fall in love with these characters.  I wanted to keep their stories going, but I wasn’t all that enthused about continuing the story-line I had created.

I liked the characters, but I didn’t want to just write a series about a Chicago cop and his wife, solving crimes in a gritty 1930s Chicago.  That seemed like it had been done before, and, more to the point, I didn’t think I would enjoy describing stabbings, rapes, various murders, and child abductions . . . you get the point.  I wanted to write something a little different, so I had to change the story a little, which was to make Clive secretly wealthy, which brings up a whole host of other problems.

 

Your series is billed as a mystery, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s more like a big family saga?

 

Yes, very astute!  It is really a little of everything, which marketers and book distributors hate because they want it to fall into a clearcut genre so that they know where to put it on the bookshelf.  But the series is really a blend of genres.  It’s like Downton Abbey meets Upstairs, Downstairs with a little Agatha Cristie thrown in.  Besides being historical fiction, it’s both mystery and romance, though it doesn’t neatly follow those formulas.

They say to write something you’d like to read, so I did.  And I think it’s working – the series has won over 30 awards, and those have been in all three genres, which I think is kind of neat.

 

What is the best piece of advice that you have been given, and/or given away?

 

Hard one! There’s a couple, actually. One is “No one can stop you but yourself.” And the second is similar.  It’s from the author, Laurie Buchanan, “Whatever you’re not changing, you’re choosing.”

 

 

About the Author

 

Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago’s forgotten residents. She suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and many others, so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards board games she doesn’t have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.

 

WebsiteFacebook ~Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads

 

 

Giveaway

 

$100 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of Michelle Cox, author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series (ends Apr 10)
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Posted in excerpt, Giveaway, Interview, romance on March 13, 2020

 

 

 

 

Title: My Way To You

Author: Catherine Bybee

Release Date: March 10, 2020

Publisher: Montlake

 

Synopsis

 

When a wildfire nearly destroys Parker Sinclair’s family home, it’s just one more disaster to add to her mountain of stress. For the past two years, she has shouldered the responsibility of raising her younger brother and sister after their parents’ untimely deaths. Forced to leave college for a crappy job that barely pays the bills, Parker manages her family property, which consumes every aspect of her life. Now winter is coming and the forecast isn’t spreading sunshine on the dark cloud over her head. The last thing Parker needs is a mudslide destroying everything she has worked so hard to maintain.

Colin Hudson’s job as a public works supervisor is to protect Parker’s property and neighborhood from further damage. But it’s a little hard when the owner of the land is a control freak who tries to do everything herself. The hardworking, attractive young woman is far from the “hot mess” she claims to be. In fact, her tight grip of control is one of the things that attract him the most. It’s also the hardest to crack. Now Colin’s working overtime to help Parker open up her heart, trust him, and let him in.

As Parker and Colin work together to keep her home and neighborhood safe, they may be in for another disaster. Or they may just realize that sometimes it takes destruction to create something new.

 

 

 

 

Interview with Catherine Bybee

 

Please tell us about the fire that inspired your newest novel My Way To You.

 

I was taking my youngest son to his senior pictures for the school when we noticed a plume of smoke in the rearview mirror. I have lived through many fire scares in the twenty years I lived in my home. Only this time, it wouldn’t be a false alarm.

 

You had to evacuate your house because of the fire. How did you feel in those moments?

 

I was thankful my children and I escaped, and terrified that I would come home to nothing but ash and debris. I’d packed up the cars with pictures and things I felt I couldn’t replace, but had to leave one of my cars behind because the fire engine was blocking my ability to drive it away. But none of that truly mattered. I felt like all the work I had done to keep my children’s family home after my recent divorce was for nothing. That fire was going to undermine the stability I had desperately tried to preserve. In short, I was an emotional mess.

 

While your property suffered immense damage, thankfully your home was left standing. Did this experience change the meaning of that word for you—home?

 

Home is stability. It’s a base for all the things we cherish. But it’s the people who make it so. I had a conversation with my youngest son not too long ago. I asked him if he missed the home he grew up in. (I’ve since moved to San Diego and sold my property in Santa Clarita.) This is what he said, “The day we ran from the fire, I stopped caring about the house. I didn’t think it would be there when we came back.” So no, he doesn’t miss his childhood home. I was shocked to hear this since my youngest tends to hold back his feelings. I lived in that house for 21 of my 51 years of life. There were memories in every corner. But in the end, the fire and flood… and exhaustion made it easier for me to sell it and walk away. Now that I’m in a new place I’m reminded that my family and memories are always with me—and a house is wood and stone. Whether I like it or not, however… it is stability. And that was shook to its core because of the fire.

 

Your life changed drastically in just one day, which is something your heroine Parker experiences—twice. The first time is when her parents die. How does this one event inform the course of her life?

 

She has to stop thinking about herself and put others before her. She had to grow up. Trauma changes you! Period. And I needed Parker to experience that so she could realize just how strong she was.

 

She has to find that strength again when fire almost destroys her home. Tell us how your heroine changes during all of this.

 

She needed to learn to lean on others again. Her parents death took that away and made her a very controlling person. (Ahummm… that’s my own epiphany.) It’s through the course of the book, and all the other players, that she learns to open herself up to live a full life. I think she also learns to be a big sister again and not the parental figure she took on.

 

In what ways is Parker like you? In what ways is she different?

 

She learned to let go, I still can’t do that.

She fell in love… That’s not me.

She had a privileged childhood with tons of options… Not me.

Parker fought to keep her home and make it right to live in it. I fought to keep my home and make it right to sell it. After so many years and so many struggles, it just wasn’t the peaceful place it once was. And with an empty nest and no Colin there to give it meaning, I needed to let go and start new.

 

***

 

Excerpt

 

“Excuse me?”

Parker turned toward the sound of the male voice and brushed aside hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. The sun glared in her eyes, making it difficult to get a clear picture of the man standing on the other side of her gate.

“Hello,” she greeted him.

“Do you live here?”

Probably a neighbor, she thought to herself. They’d shown up constantly after the fire to see how close the flames had actually come to their homes. Many of them invited themselves in without knocking. That was until she paid to have someone come in and fix the broken gate and stop the trespassers.

“I would hope so,” she said, waving the pruner in her hands. “I don’t think I would take this job for actual money.” The closer she got to the gate, the better the features of the man came into focus. He stood at least three inches taller than her, no easy task when she was five nine. Broad shoulders and arms that didn’t look like they slaved in an office all day. He wore jeans. It had to be over a hundred degrees, and the man wore jeans.

And filled them out nicely, if she wasn’t too tired to notice.

Parker forced her gaze back to his face, his eyes hidden by his sunglasses; his thick brown hair wasn’t covered by a hat.

She stopped in front of him, the gate to the property a clear division. The intense set of his jaw softened slightly. “Is your, ah … husband here?”

Three years ago, in a bar … or while out with friends, she would have instantly denied a lack of a husband. Out here, with a stranger … even an attractive one standing at her front door, she wasn’t about to correct him. “Who’s asking?”

The man’s smile fell and he quickly removed his sunglasses. “I’m sorry. My name is Colin Hudson. Colin to my friends.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Hudson?” She wasn’t about to call him by his first name.

“I work with the Public Works Department and wanted to see if you’d let me take a quick look at the wash that runs through your property.” He reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. Out came a business card that he handed her through the bars of the iron gate.

She had to move close enough to take the card, but retreated once she had it in her fingertips.

He instantly shoved his hands in his front pockets and took a step back.

The card looked legit. Parker reminded herself that anyone with a computer could make a business card. “Does your department work on Saturdays, Mr. Hudson?”

“All the time.”

She peered beyond the gate, didn’t see a car. “Did you walk here?”

Mr. Hudson looked over his shoulder, pointed his thumb down the street. “I have a company truck. I parked around the corner.”

“Ah-huh.” She wanted to believe him. His caramel brown eyes looked kind enough. “Even Ted Bundy was good-looking,” she said loud enough for him to hear.

Parker looked up to find him staring, his mouth gaped open. “That’s a first.”

“Sorry.” Not sorry. “By-product of being a lone woman on a large piece of property with a stranger asking to come in. Business card aside, you could be anyone.”

He lifted his hands in the air. “Very wise. I hope my sister would do the same. I was just hoping to get an eye on the canyon before Monday’s meeting. But I can wait.”

She relaxed her grip on the tree pruner. “What meeting?”

“The city and county are meeting to discuss the concerns of the watershed after the fire. We’re developing a plan to preserve property during the winter. If I could take a quick look it would help.”

“You mean prevent mudslides?”

“Control mudslides,” he corrected her.

She shifted from foot to foot. “You can do that?”

“It’s a big part of our job.” He smiled, looked over her shoulder. “I can wait. I don’t want to make you uneasy.”

Parker looked back toward the house. “Tell you what. You go get your company truck and I’ll grab a snake fork and show you the wash.”

His eyes narrowed with an unasked question.

“It’s summer. Rattlesnakes are a thing,” she explained.

“You sure?”

Yeah, she was sure. “I’ll open the gate. You can park inside.”

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee has written thirty books that collectively have sold more than five million copies and been translated into more than eighteen languages. Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Not Quite Series, the Weekday Brides Series, the Most Likely To Series, and the First Wives Series.

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Posted in excerpt, Giveaway, Interview, romance on March 12, 2020

 

 

Title: Yours In Scandal

Author: Lauren Layne

Release Date: March 10, 2020

Publisher: Montlake

 

Synopsis

 

Fresh off being named Citizen magazine’s Man of the Year, New York City’s youngest mayor, Robert Davenport, decides it’s time to strategize. Next move: a bid for the governor’s seat. In his way: an incumbent with a flawless reputation. He also has an Achilles’ heel: an estranged wild-child daughter with a past so scandalous it could be Robert’s ticket to victory. And a charm so irresistible it could be Robert’s downfall.

Rebellion is a thing of the past for Adeline Blake. As New York’s premier event planner, she’s all about reform and respectability. Then she’s approached by Robert to organize the party of the season. Curious, considering he’s her father’s most formidable opponent. And alarming, too. Because Addie can’t help but fall for the righteously popular candidate with the movie-star smile.

Now it’s Robert’s choice. Does he pursue a future that holds his legacy? Or the woman who holds his heart?

 

 

Interview with Lauren Layne

 

Tell us about your new series.

 

The series features three men who are named “Man of the Year” (think: People’s Sexiest Man Alive) and the unexpected ramifications that come with that! Yours in Scandal kicks off the series with a young, wealthy mayor of NYC who falls for his political rival’s daughter.

 

Why was it important for you to start your series with Addie and Robert?

 

The real answer? There’s is the book listed first in the contract 😉 In truth I’m equally excited about all three books in the series, and could have happily jumped in anywhere! That said, writing a politician was a unique and fun challenge for me (I tend to write a lot of businessmen!) so a new take on my “hot guy in a suit” was a fun creative challenge!

 

Even though she is still young, your heroine Addie has lived quite a life. Where did her teenage rebellious streak come from?

 

The first thing I always do when I get a new story idea is to figure out where the conflict is—I have to make sure these two people, however attracted, can’t get together (easily) by chapter three. When I decided to take on a hero who’s a mayor, I took a step back to think which woman would be most off-limits to him. One with a bit of scandal was the obvious answer, since the spouses of politicians are usually held to the same exacting standards (if not more so) than the politician him/herself! From there, I dug into Addie’s character and her scandal-laden past.

 

Do you have anything in common with your heroine?

 

Honestly? No 🙂 Other than being a little mouthy during puberty, I was a pretty easy kid and teenager, and skipped the rebellious phase, at least according to my parents! I sort of skipped the whole rebellious phase growing up no underage drinking, no missed curfews, I’ve never even gotten a ticket. Though, I think perhaps I was saving up all my rebellious urges for my mid-twenties, where I seemed to chafe really hard at being managed in the corporate world, and quit my practical, well-paying job rather spontaneously and irresponsibly with almost no safety net, and dove headfirst into being a full-time writer. And I suppose, for that matter, I’ve made some rebellious choices as an author (quitting Facebook, not doing ARCs on my self-pub title, etc). So, I guess I change my answer! Yeah, I have a little in common with Addie after all!

 

Your hero Robert is fantastic! He is smart, successful and just earned the title ‘Man of the Year’. What made you fall in love with him?

 

He really is great, isn’t he? 🙂 I actually knew from the start that Robert was going to be a pretty stand-up guy. I wanted to steer as away from the cliche, corrupt politician as possible, and show that it’s absolutely possible for people to be in public office simply because they want to do good, not because they’re power hungry. I think what I love most about him is how he never wavers in wanting best for Addie and the people around him, even if it hurts him personally. He’s a really unselfish guy, and that is so, so appealing to me!

 

Would you say that there are similarities that all of your heroes share?

 

I’d say they’re all pretty quick with a comeback. Whether they’re the charming playboys or the more reserved, Mr. Darcy types they’ve got a bit of a sharp, clever tongue! Also, the vast majority tend to be wealthy and suit-wearing. I’ve got a few exceptions, but I think there’s something so sexy about a buttoned-up guy in a suit coming undone over a woman, so I tend to come back to that again and again!

 

Some of the best moments in Yours In Scandal happen when your heroine and hero are around their trusted friends. Are any of the secondary characters we meet destined to get their own happily-ever-afters?

 

No plans for any spinoffs with those characters! Not because I don’t love them, but because the writing schedule’s pretty jam-packed!

 

***

 

Excerpt

 

“I just need to be sure . . . am I going crazy? I am, right? Our girl’s not seriously telling us she had dinner with the mayor,” Rosalie said, turning to Jane.

“You’re not the crazy one—she is,” Jane said, emphatically pointing at Adeline.

Adeline nibbled on the corner of a chip. “It’s really not the big deal you two are making it out to be. It was just dinner. Pizza.”

“That’s even worse!” Jane said shrilly. “It’s so intimate.”

Adeline glanced over at her calmer friend. “Please tell her there’s nothing intimate about Italian sausage.” She winced as she caught herself. “Yeah, I heard it.”

“It is a little out of character,” Rosalie said slowly. “You haven’t exactly made it a secret how you feel about men these days. To say nothing of your thoughts on elected officials.”

“I didn’t sleep with the guy, we just had pizza.”

“I’d actually be less concerned if you’d slept with him,” Rosalie admitted.

“Agreed,” Jane said, smacking the table. “A sexy fling with the Man of the Year is one thing. A cozy dinner at his place is just . . .” She threw her hands up. “I can’t. I literally can’t process it.”

“You don’t have to process anything,” Adeline said, dunking the chip into the salsa and stuffing the whole thing in her mouth. “It was a one-time thing. The party’s next weekend, and then I’ll probably never see him again.”

“What if he wants you to be his forever event planner?”

“He won’t. His regular planner’s one of the best in the city, and I’m sure she’ll be back from maternity leave by the time he needs to hire someone again.”

“Is his regular event planner hot and single?” Jane pointed out.

“She’s married.”

“Exactly. Much less susceptible to his sexy face than single you.”

Adeline sighed and looked again to the perpetually calm Rosalie. “Make it stop.”

“Just promise you’ll warn us if you start to fall for the guy,” her friend said, fiddling with her chip. “Much as I love the idea of you landing the hottest guy in the city, I also know just how tricky that would be for you.”

“Tricky is an understatement given he’s likely running against The Bastard in the next election,” she said, knowing that both of her lifelong friends knew she was referring to the father she’d all but disowned.

Adeline hadn’t known Rosalie as long as she’d known Jane, but they still went all the way back to high school. Adeline had been the loose cannon, Jane the genius, and Rosalie had been, well . . . perfect.

“You know,” Adeline said, looking thoughtfully at Rosalie over the top of her margarita. “I actually thought about setting you and the mayor up.”

“Wait, what?” Rosalie’s eyes went wide.

“You said yourself he was hot,” Adeline pointed out. “You’re also beautiful, well spoken, polished. You never look bad in a photograph, and you never say the wrong thing. I literally can’t think of a more perfect future First Lady of New York.”

“Oooh, I see that!” Jane said, pivoting in her chair to stare at Rosalie.

Adeline gave Jane an exasperated expression. “You were just warning me off of the guy.”

“Warning you off, yes. But Rosalie . . .”

Adeline tried to ignore the sting. It wasn’t as if Jane were saying anything Adeline herself hadn’t thought. Even if she were inclined to pursue the mayor, and she wasn’t, she knew that she was the last thing someone like him needed. Her past alone made her an inconceivable choice for him, and even if she could keep her past mistakes under wraps, she would never be the right woman for him. She may have mastered the bun and the blazers, but she was still the woman who collected adventurous lingerie and loved tequila.

“The guy’s definitely attractive,” Rosalie said. “But I don’t know that I want one of Adeline’s rejects,” she said with a smile intended to annoy Adeline.

“I wouldn’t let that stop me,” Jane said, fanning herself. “If it weren’t for Dan . . . . Too bad I love that man so damn much. Seriously, Rosalie, let Adeline fix you up, so I can live vicariously.”

“Hello,” Rosalie said, staring at the admittedly, occasionally tone-deaf Jane. “Are you not seeing what I’m seeing?” She pointed at Adeline.

Jane glanced over and narrowed her eyes.

“Ever since she came back from New Mexico with her hair brown, she’s been like this buttoned-up ice woman. But when she talks about him . . .” Rosalie made an unrecognizable hissing, clicking noise.

“What was that?” Jane asked.

“Fire igniting,” Rosalie explained. “Whatever, so sound effects and act-outs aren’t my strong suit. The point is—”

“If I sound fiery when I talk about the mayor, it’s only because he’s a control freak and pain in the ass,” Adeline interjected. “The man doesn’t know how to delegate, is hell-bent on carrying on his father’s legacy without ever checking in with himself, and . . .”

Adeline’s thoughts scattered a little as she realized she wasn’t being entirety fair to the mayor. Yes, he was obsessed with his image, as a man in his position had to be. But he could also be funny and irreverent. He could also be spontaneous and casual.

He’d proven that yesterday, first with the tour of his home, then the invitation of dinner. Even the way he ate pizza was appealing, somehow both buttoned-up precise and outright relishing, all at the same time.

“We need more margaritas.”

 

About the Author

Lauren Layne is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than two dozen novels, including Hot Asset, Hard Sell, and Huge Deal in her 21 Wall Street series, as well as her Central Park Pact series. Her books have sold more than a million copies in nine languages. Lauren’s work has been featured in Publishers Weekly, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal, and Inside Edition. She is based in New York City.

Website * Instagram * Facebook * Goodreads

 

 

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Posted in Christian, Giveaway, Interview, suspense, Thriller on March 9, 2020

 

Chasing The White Lion

 

(Talia Inger, Book Two)

by

 

James R. Hannibal

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Christian / Thriller / Suspense

Publisher: Revell

Date of Publication: March 3, 2020

Number of Pages: 384

 

Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

Young CIA officer Talia Inger has reconciled with the man who assassinated her father, but that doesn’t mean she wants him hovering over her every move and unearthing the painful past she’s trying to put behind her. Still, she’ll need him–and the help of his star grifter, Valkyrie–if she hopes to infiltrate the Jungle, the first ever crowdsourced crime syndicate, to rescue a group of kidnapped refugee children.

But as Talia and her elite team of thieves con their way into the heart of the Jungle, inching ever closer to syndicate boss the White Lion, she’ll run right up against the ragged edge of her family’s dark past. In this game of cat and mouse, it’s win . . . or die. And in times like that, it’s always good to have someone watching your back.

Former tactical deception officer and stealth pilot James Hannibal takes you deep undercover into the criminal underworld where everyone has an angle, and no one escapes unscathed.

 

 

WANT TO BE A REAL HERO?

Want to be a real hero? Compassion International, a real organization fighting child poverty, stars in Chasing the White Lion. By giving hope and a sense of identity to these kids, they’re helping families slam the door on human traffickers. A portion of every book sold will go to support Compassion’s work. You can join the fight simply by buying a copy of Chasing the White Lion.

 

 

Baker Book House ◆ Amazon ◆ Barnes & Noble

Christianbook.com ◆ Kobo ◆ Books-A-Million

Additional Retailers

 

 

 

Today we welcome author James R. Hannibal to StoreyBook Reviews and share some insights into the book and even the man himself.  So sit back and learn a few things.

 

Why did you choose to write in your particular sub-genre?

 

My background in covert operations and stealth technology left me little choice. Spinning tall tales in the spy world is a sort of catharsis for a guy who can’t even tell his wife about the juiciest parts of his military career. Constantly using my imagination helps me keep all the classified data buried deep in my conscious mind. And, according to the military, I’ve proven I can keep that data buried, so I no longer have to get their approval before publishing.

 

Are there under-represented groups or ideas featured in your book?

 

With Chasing the White Lion I hope to bring attention to the suffering of Burmese refugees in the camps on the Thai/Myanmar border. Many of these families are Christians, chased from their homes by government supported militias. The children in these camps have no official identity, since they are not recognized by Myanmar and Thailand won’t register them. Having no paper or digital identity makes them prime targets for human trafficking—thus the kidnapping that really sets the story in motion. I also want to highlight one group that is fighting for these kids, and fighting hard. Compassion International is battling child poverty around the world, and they are the stars of Chasing the White Lion. In the real refugee camps, Compassion International brings hope, whole-child care, and learning, and pushes back against human traffickers by giving kids a sense of self-worth and a legal identity. Readers can help in this fight by joining Compassion or simply buying a book. A portion of all my author proceeds goes to Compassion International.

 

What made you decide to write a sequel? Any unexpected hurdles in doing this?

 

This sequel came to me in a dream on a cold night in Bavaria while I was researching another project. From that moment on, I had to write it. But the deeper I dove into the characters and plot, the more I realized that this story had a special mission. I needed to partner with Compassion International to highlight the work they are doing to end child poverty and combat human trafficking. Giving a charitable organization like Compassion a starring role in a spy/thief thriller is no easy task. We took this effort down to the wire in getting final approval—cutting it so close that we were ready with a letter-for-letter replacement name on the Friday before the final typeset went to print. But the approval came through, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to use an action tale to spread the word about Compassion’s work.

 

How important are the names to you in your books? How do you choose the names?

 

In Chasing the White Lion, one name is super important to me. Most of the scenes with the kidnappers are shown through the eyes of one child, Thet Ye. His name means Brave Life, and I hope that by spending some time in Thet Ye’s shoes, readers will gain a better understanding of these refugee children, their inherent dignity, and their will to survive.

 

If you were an animal in a zoo, what would you be? In four words or less, tell us why.

 

Giraffe. My wife loves giraffes.

 

Do you have any strange writing habits or writing rituals you’d like to share with your readers?

 

I am ashamed to admit that I like to sit at my desk, write, and eat gummy worms. Red worms. Green worms. Red and yellow worms. Sadly, the order of things is often reversed, and instead of writing and eating gummy worms, I find myself eating gummy worms and writing. This eventually devolves into just eating gummy worms with no writing getting accomplished until all the gummy worms are gone.

 

 

 

 

Former stealth pilot James R. Hannibal is a two-time Silver Falchion Award winner for his Section 13 mysteries for kids and a Thriller Award nominee for his Nick Baron covert ops series for adults. James is a rare multi-sense synesthete, meaning all of his senses intersect. He sees and feels sounds and smells and hears flashes of light. He lives in Houston, Texas.

 

 

Website ⬥ Facebook

Twitter ⬥ Instagram ⬥ Bookbub

Goodreads ⬥ Amazon Author Page

 

 

 

————————————-

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

GRAND PRIZE: Copy of Both Books in the Talia Inger Series

+ Bookstore Candle + $10 Starbucks Gift Card; 

SECOND PRIZE: Copy of Both Books in the Talia Inger Series

+ $20 Barnes and Noble Gift Card;

THIRD PRIZE: Copy of Both Books in the Talia Inger Series  + $10 Starbucks Gift Card

March 3-13, 2020

(U.S. Only)

 

 

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Check out the other blogs on this tour

 

3/3/20 Top Five List Forgotten Winds
3/3/20 Review Chapter Break Book Blog
3/4/20 Author Video Kelly Well Read
3/5/20 Review Reading by Moonlight
3/6/20 Review The Clueless Gent
3/6/20 Excerpt Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
3/7/20 Character Interview Max Knight
3/8/20 Excerpt All the Ups and Downs
3/9/20 Review Missus Gonzo
3/9/20 Author Interview StoreyBook Reviews
3/10/20 Review Momma on the Rocks
3/11/20 Review Book Fidelity
3/11/20 Excerpt That’s What She’s Reading
3/12/20 Review Hall Ways Blog
3/12/20 Notable Quotable Sybrina’s Book Blog

 

 

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