New Release - Oath of the Brotherhood - C.E. Laureano

Dear Readers,

What is the one genre that more people ask for in Christian fiction?  Ok there are those, but what is the one where there are not many titles to give them?  Fantasy/Sci Fi.  I still get asked if there are any good reads in that genre more than almost any other genre in which I can't give them many suggestions.

The Oath of the Brotherhood by C.E. Laureano book #1 of the Song of Seare has waded into the pool and looks to help fill that gap.  Conor Mac Nir is a disappointment to his clan, he plays the harp and is dangerous with the sword.  Not a danger to other, but to himself. 

The warrior brotherhood think he may actually be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, but can he be trained to fight?  Is he really the answer to the prophecy?  Is he ready to sacrifice everything include his love for Aine to fight the evil taking over their island?

What more do you look for in an fantasy novel.  Ancient prophesies, an unlikely hero and evil that is posed to take over the world.  That is the type of book that you want to pick up as you curl up into your favorite reading chair and help fight on the side of good.  Got your sword ready?

Happy Reading,

New Releases - June 2 - 7

Dear Readers,

The good new titles keep rolling in.  Just when I think we are getting a lull in the number of titles we are getting, more roll into the store.  It will make for a busy summer of reading, but I have no problem with that. 

Happy Reading,


The Fight - Luke Wordley - To say Sam Pennington has anger issues is probably an understatement.  He has plenty of reasons to be angry, but it is going to get him kicked out of school.  When boxing trainer Jerry finds Sam and reaches out to him, both their lives are changed, but maybe not for the better.

Mark of Distinction - Jessica Dotta - #2 Price of Privilege Trilogy - Julia is now under the protection of Lord Pierson.  She is the toast of London but she find it hard to maintain the illusions that is her life now. 

Blind Trust - Sandra Orchard - #2 Port Aster Secrets - Kate Adams is caught red- handed with counterfeit money.  What makes it even crazier is she got the money from her dear sweet neighbor.  While investigating the counterfeit ring, she stumbles on something even darker. 

Saving Amelie - Cathy Gohlke - Rachel is hunted by the SS because of the child she is hiding, but also secrets from her own past.  When Rachel and Amelie hide in Oberammergau, they are not only risking their own lives, but also the lives of those willing to help save others from the threat of the Nazi's beliefs.

Wish - Jake Smith - Tear jerking story of a young boy with cancer and his dying wish.  Aaron's one wish is he wants to see his father play in a major league baseball game.  His father is afraid that he does not have the skills to make the team and fulfill that wish.

All Right Here - Carre Armstrong Gardner - A Darling Family Novel #1 - Ivy is unable to have children of her own and her husband has begun to resent it.  When a ready made family is almost dropped in their laps, Ivy is ready to adopt them, but her husband is sure he wants such a mismatched family.

Oath of the Brotherhood - C.E. Laureano - #1 The Song of Searf - (from the back cover) An island at the edge of the world.  An ancient prophecy. A reclusive warrior brotherhood.  When Evil encroaches, who will find the faith to fight it?

Yankee in Atlanta - Jocelyn Green - Heroines Behind the Lines - Civil War #3 - (from the back cover) She hid from her past to find a future and landed on enemy soil. 

A Mother's Secret - Amy Clipston - Unmarried but with a son, Carolyn doesn't believe she will ever marry.  Her parents try to marry her off to a widow in need of a mother for his young daughter, but Carolyn is looking for love. 

The Bridge Tender - Marybeth Whalen - A Sunset Beach Novel - Emily and Ryan made a pact to buy a house on the beach in Sunset Beach - someday.  Someday never comes when Ryan suddenly passes away.  That is until a secret insurance policy comes to light. 

New Release - The Heart's Pursuit - Robin Lee Hatcher

Dear Readers,

Robin Lee Hatcher has been a fixture in the Christian fiction market for as long as I can remember.  She writes a variety of genres, but historical fiction is what she does the most.  I don't want to say best, because I love her contemporary books also.

The Heart's Pursuit is Robin newest release and once again Robin takes us on an adventure from by gone eras.  Set in Colorado in 1873, we get to chase some bad guys along side bounty hunter Jared Newman.  He is determined to hunt down the murder of his family and he does not need a woman tagging along.

Silver is left at the altar by a man who not only deserted her, but stole her family's money.  Because of him her family is left in ruins.  She is going to find him and make him pay.  But traveling with Jared is probably not such a great idea.

There is something romantic about the wild west.  It maybe the ruggedness of men, the women who stood along side them or just the chance to find a place that no one else has tamed, but whatever it is, we all seem drawn to a good western.

Happy Reading,

The Midwife - Jolina Petersheim

Dear Readers,

This is the third time I have started this review.  Not because The Midwife by Jolina Petersheim is not good, but because I can’t find the right words to use to tell you how really good it is.  It is truly a story about walking in someone else’s shoes to understand what they have been through. 

Rhoda keeps everyone at a distance.  All the girls and young ladies that come through the home for unwed mothers that she works for, her fellow workers and midwives, the handy man/driver, everyone.  She does this because it seems like to her, everyone she loves abandons her and she no longer wants to risk her heart.

She works at Hopen Haus, a Mennonite support home.  When the community left the area it left the little house with little or no support and they are struggling to survive.  Rhoda sees it as just one more abandonment. 

I really can’t go on more or I will start giving the storyline away.  I was not too excited by Rhoda most of the story, but as I went on the journey that was her life I began to understand her more and more and that is what life is about also. 

There were so many different threads to this story.  It doesn’t make it hard to follow, it makes for a richer story.  Each person’s thread was important to what was happening at Hopen Haus.  I think that is what I liked the most about this book, how each person involved effected those around her for very different reasons, some good and some bad, and shaped the others because of it. 

 

Happy Reading,

 

Summer Reading list - part III

Dear Readers,

This is the last installment of my summer reading list.  It was long this year, but not long enough as more and more titles come in.  Enjoy these titles and then look for more as we get new titles every day.

Happy Reading,

Dear Mr. Knightley – Katherine Reay - Sam hides in her books, her only friends lie between the pages of the classics like Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare.  The problem is she lives in the real world.  When a mentor offers a free passage to college she finds out what it means to really be loved and how to be a friend.

The Traitor's Wife - Allison Pataki - We all know about Benedict Arnold and the most notorious act of treason in America's history, but did you know that he was drawn into the act by his much younger wife.  Peggy Shippen was loyal to the British, she is the one who hatches the plan to turn West Point over to the British.

The Pursuit of Tamsen Little John - Lori Benton - Tamsen escapes the life of hardship under her step-father and an arranged marriage with Jesse Bird.  What she finds is harder than she imagined, but maybe just what she is seeking.

Sing for Me - Karen Halvorsen Schreck - Set in 1937.  Rose Sorenson longs for something more than just the hymns she sings at church.  Introduced to the world of Jazz clubs, she finds an exciting place that offers her what she wants.

Where Courage Calls - Janette Oke & Laurel Oke Logan - When Calls the Heart novel - This book compliments the new series on the Hallmark Channel.  Set in the Canadian frontier it brings us back to Janette's much loved Canadian West series.

Songs of the Shenandoah - Michael K. Reynolds - An Heirs of Ireland Novel - (from the back cover) In this dramatic conclusion to the Heirs of Ireland series... the clash of loyalties and beliefs threatens an entire family. 

The First Phone Call From Heaven - Mitch Albom - On the same morning that Sully Harding is released from prison is when the first phone calls start happening.  Phone calls from people to their loved ones.  Which doesn't sound so unusual except the one that is calling is dead.  Sully sets out to prove it is all faked by someone with a sick sense of humor.

Stones for Bread - Christa Parrish - Liesl's world is all about bread.  Her heritage, her job, her life.  That is until those who surround her start interfering.  The troubled teen her head baker brings in, the waitress who summits a recipe to a cooking show, and the flour guys who thinks he can win her affection.

Strait of Hormuz - David Bunn - One call and Marc Royce is once again on an assignment.  He is trying to find the threat to world peace and safety stretching from Asia to the Middle East.

Heart Failure - Richard L. Mabry M.D. - Medical thrillers at its best.  Carrie found a second love almost to good to be true.  Then Adam confesses that he is on the run from the witness program and now they are both in danger.

I, Saul - Jerry Jenkins with James MacDonald  - What if a manuscript written by Paul was found completely intact in spite of being stored in the walls of his prison cell?  Augie finds out when he gets a call from a friend who say he needs help.

A Beauty so Rare - Tamera Alexander - #2 A Belmont Mansion Novel - Eleanor never plans on marring, but her aunt has other idea for her.  While Eleanor tries to start a place for widows and orphans of the civil war, her aunt is trying to marry her to a man she doesn't love.

The Amish Groom - Mindy Starns Clark/Susan Meissner - #1 the Men of Lancaster County - Torn between two worlds, Tyler needs to decide if he is going stay in the Amish community where he was raised after his mother passed or return to the Englisch world that his father is part of.

What Follows After - Dan Walsh - (Not part of the series he is working on with Gary Smalley) Scott and Gina's marriage is over.  They have carried out a lie for over a year, but their sons, Colt and Timmy are sick of it.  So they decide to run away and force their parents to back together.

The Devil Walks in Mattingly - Billy Coffey - (from the back cover) For three people, secretly complicit in a young man's death, redemption is their most precious desire... and the last thing any of them ever expect to receive.

My Mother's Chamomile - Susie Finkbeiner - The Eliot family is used to assisting people in the time of their greatest need, now they will need comforting and support for others.  Will they make it through the drought to find God's promises of comfort again?

 

New Release - Sky Zone - Creston Mapes

Dear Readers,

After being gone for a few years, Creston Mapes is back and treating readers to a wonderful new series.  He writes fast paced action filled adventures that keeps you turning pages as quick as you can to the end and then regretting that you are finished so quickly.  Sky Zone is book #3 in the Crittendon series and the newest release for Creston.

Jack Crittendon is the reporter with a knack for stumbling on a huge story.  That doesn't always set well with his bosses and never with the criminal.   He is now out of work and his very pregnant wife is working full time trying to make ends meet. 

He takes on a job helping a friend at the Festival Arena.  He agrees to work at a political rally and that is when thing start going wrong.  A terrorist plot is revealed and Jack and his friend Brian Shakespeare have to race to save not only themselves but the lives of thousands.

Creston's novels are timely and ones that while you are reading it you wonder if you had just read that story in the newspaper or if it was in the book.  He writes wonderful gritty characters that you love and yet they have a bit of an edge to them so you are not always comfortable with them.  But he draws you back for more over and over again.  I for one am very glad that he is back.

Happy Reading,

New Releases - May 26 - 31

Dear Readers,

It is June already.  I am having a hard time believing that spring is almost over and summer is on the way.  Here in Michigan it took a bit longer to thaw out enough to get outside, but once the warmer temps hit, outside is where we were enjoying dozens of new books for the season.

Here are more good titles to add to the list.

Happy Reading,

Child's Play - Bill Meyers - First of the Last Fool series - (from back cover) - Fifty years in the future, religion is banned. Location - Sisco Heights mental Health Facility. Unconventional characters delve into a statement on a fortune found in a cookie - "You are my favorite child, God."

Through the Deep Waters - Kim Vogel Sawyer - Bad decisions and a shameful past because of her mother, Dinah doesn't feel she is loveable to anyone.  Amos wants to show her unconditional love, but will she be able to except it?

Sidetracked - Brandilyn Collins - Delanie is hiding from her dark past.  Reinventing herself, she has everything she ever dreamed of.  In fact her boyfriend is going to ask her to marry him.  That all crashes to an end when her friend, Clara, is murdered.  She wants to find the killer, but that will mean revealing her past.

Hallowed Halls - Hannah Alexander - Joy Gilbert is fired from her position in the city, returning home she finds much the same, but some has changed.  Her mother is struggling, her former fiancé is still single and her former bosses' daughter stowed away and refuses to return home. 

Sky Zone - Creston Mapes - #3 The Crittendon Files - Jack Crittendon is working part time, his pregnant wife is working full time, life is strained to say the least.  When he takes a job to help at a political rally life changes rapidly when a treat of a terrorist attack is revealed.

Forever Amish - Kate Lloyd - #3 of the Legacy of Lancaster series - Sally needs sometime away to sort through what is to come.  What she finds is a Amish woman who introduces her to a very different perspective on life and a handsome farm hand.  All of which may change her life forever.

Sarah's Choice - Rebecca St. James/Nancy Rue - Sarah is on the verge of getting the job she has dreamed of.  Huge raise, new car, travel, she is ready for it.  Only one thing stands in her way, her unborn baby.

For Love or Country - Jennifer Hudson Taylor - #2 the MacGregor Legacy - Tyra's spying for the colonials comes to a halt when she is placed under house arrest.  Donahue Morgan is sent to guard her and even though they are sworn enemies, there is attraction that can't be denied.

Rival Hearts - Tara Randel - Quilts of Love series - Molly writes for Quilter's Heart and Ben writes for Outdoor Adventures.  They are both up for a new promotion and to prove who is the better writer, they must switch jobs and learn about and then write about the other's magazine. 

Hacker - Ted Dekker - #2 Outlaw Chronicles - Nyah is a genius hacker.  She cracks firewalls for a living.  When the biggest job of her life goes wrong it becomes a life or death situation.

Blur - Steven James - When the veil between reality and madness begins to blur, Daniel isn't sure what to believe anymore.  He is sadden over Emily's death, but a terrifying vision brings that into questions.  Is there more to her death than what meets the eye?